[ritchiebaby]

And surprise, surprise, as our Cilla used to say, Tadej Pogacar won once again to extend his GC lead. After a spirited effort by Lennard Kamna, he was eventually caught with 100m to go by Jonas Vingegaard and Pogacar, who always seems to have something in reserve and he won the race to the top. Primoz Roglic finished in 3rd just ahead of Kamna and Geraint Thomas.

Pogacar now leads the GC rankings by 35 seconds from Vingegaard, with Thomas 3rd, 1 minute 10 seconds behind the leader.

Wout van Aert still wears the Green Jersey by a comfortable margin ahead of Fabio Jakobsen and Pogacar.

Magnus Cort Neilsen leads the Polka Dot Jersey competition, but only by 1 point from Pogacar, with Vingegaard a further 2 points behind.

Tomorrow sees the start of Stage 8 from Dole, finishing 186km later in the Olympic Stadium in Lausanne. It has an early Sprint after 47km followed by two Category 4 climbs and two Category 3 climbs. The specialist climbers will probably save themselves for the rigours of Sunday's stage, with most of the GC contenders keeping an eye on each other. Wout van Aert could push hard for a stage win, if he's not on domestique duties for Vingegaard and Roglic. Romain Bardet also might have a good outside chance of victory. The way he's riding, Tadej Pogacar could win just about every stage, so can't be discounted.

The start town, Dole, was the birthplace of scientist and chemist Louis Pasteur, another flawed French genius like Platini. Lausanne is universally famous for being a sports administrative centre, most notably the International Olympic Committee. As well as being the burial place of Coco Chanel, it was also the city where both Peter Carl Faberge and Georges Simenon died - Simenon introduced the world to the character of Maigret, yet another flawed French genius. On a more positive note, Stan Wawrinka was born in Lausanne.

Stage 9 on Sunday starts off in Aigle and finishes 193km later in Chatel Les Portes Du Soleil back in France. The first 153km consists of a clockwise loop back into Aigle, then heads south then west to the finish. The first half of the stage is fairly gentle with a Category 4 climb and an intermediate sprint. The second half kicks off with a Category 2 climb then two Category 1 climbs. As is often the case, the descents might prove just as important as the ascents, so there could be a big attack on the long descent from Col de la Croix with 60km to go. Bauke Mollema might be the man to do it. Otherwise Pogacar or perhaps Adam Yates or Geraint Thomas could well be in the mix. Aleksandr Vlasov, if he has recovered from his exertions today, is another who should feature prominently along with Primoz Roglic.

Aigle is best known as the headquarters of the International Cycling Union and less known as the birthplace of ex-Magpies, Siem de Jong and Luuk de Jong. Chatel has an Interpretation Centre For Smuggling (being near the Swiss Franc border - see what I did there?). Don't take unknown packages back home for a "friend", pack your own bags, you know the drill.

[themaclad]

Tad's won it.
Tadej Pogacar edged out Jonas Vingegaard to win a hugely exciting stage seven and extend his overall lead at the Tour de France.

The two-time defending champion pipped the Dane in the last 20 metres to take his second consecutive stage victory.

Pogacar and Vingegaard broke away from Lennard Kamna, who succumbed to the punishing climb finish at La Super Planche des Belles Filles.

Primoz Roglic, the 2020 runner-up, finished third with Kamna fourth.

Pogacar leads last year's runner-up Vingegaard by 35 seconds in the general classification standings, with Britain's Geraint Thomas one minute 10 seconds off the pace in third.

Germany's Kamna led by just under one minute a kilometre from the finish of the 176.5km stage from Tomblaine, and looked like hanging on for a courageous breakaway win, but gradients of more than 20% proved too much.

However, it was another statement of intent from 23-year-old Pogacar, who claimed the yellow jersey with his win in Longwy on Thursday.

Having caught Kamna, Jumbo-Visma's Vingegaard looked to be heading for victory until Pogacar produced a final burst of speed to eclipse his rival in a dramatic finish.

"It was really, really difficult, especially in the last part where Jonas [Vingegaard] attacked - he was so strong," said UAE Team Emirates rider Pogacar.

"But I said yeah, my boys were working all day so I had to push to the finish line. It was a really special day.

"We opened a foundation today for cancer research, so I wore special shoes just for today, and I'm really happy and proud to take this win on Planche des Belle Filles."

Stage seven results
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 3hrs 58mins 40secs

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) Same time

3. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) +12 secs

4. Lennard Kamna (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe) +14secs

5. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) Same time

6. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama/FDJ) +19secs

7. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +21secs

8. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) Same time

9. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +29secs

10. Sepp Kuss (US/Jumbo-Visma) +41secs

General classification after stage seven
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 23hrs 43mins 14secs

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) +35 secs

3. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1mins 10secs

4. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1mins 18secs

5. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +1mins 31secs

6. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +1mins 32secs

7. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1mins 35secs

8. Neilson Powless (US/EF Education-EasyPost +1mins 37secs

9. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +1mins 43secs

10. Daniel Martinez (Col/Ineos Grenadiers) +1mins 55secs

[ritchiebaby]

I didn't see any of today's stage, either live or the highlights, so here's the BBC website's take on the race.

"Belgium's Wout van Aert sprinted to his second stage victory of this year's Tour de France as Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar extended his overall lead on stage eight.
Jumbo-Visma's Van Aert hung on up a category three climb to the finish to edge out Australia's Michael Matthews.
Pogacar finished third to extend his yellow jersey lead to 39 seconds.
British trio Tom Pidcock, Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates all finished in the leading group of riders.
Pidock led the Ineos Grenadiers contingent over the finish line in 10th, with Thomas just behind in 11th and Yates in 18th place, with all three retaining their positions in the top 10 of the general classification.
For long stages of the 186.3km route from Dole in France to Lausanne in Switzerland another Briton, Fred Wright, battled gamely to record his first Grand Tour stage win.
The Bahrain-Victorious rider formed a three-man breakaway with Mattia Cattaneo and Frederik Frison but was forced to go solo in the final 10km before being caught around 3.5km from the line as the chasing group began to accelerate towards the finish in Lausanne.
Matthews, who was denied victory by Pogacar on stage six, opened up his sprint to the line too early and saw the Slovenian again come on to his wheel before Van Aert impressively surged past both to record his eighth individual Tour victory."

This leaves the top 10 in the GC classification unchanged, but there are only 45 seconds between 3rd and 10th, all over a minute behind.

[themaclad]

Also didn't see much of it, able to watch today but probably nothing until Friday strangely appear to have a life this although Lausanne looked a cracking place

[themaclad]

Deserved win for Bob 60 km solo break and won comfortably, Tad won the sprint of the GC again and Orla again wore socks

Luxembourg's Bob Jungels soloed to a superb first stage victory at the Tour de France on stage nine.

The AG2R Citroen rider attacked on the penultimate categorised climb and stayed clear for over 60km after opening up a gap on the descent.

France's Thibaut Pinot threatened to catch him but ended up finishing fourth behind Spaniards Jonathan Castroviejo and Carlos Verona.

Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar remains the overall race leader.

Pogacar, who is aiming to win the race for a third consecutive year, strengthened his position in the yellow jersey, taking time out of most of his general classification rivals, bar Jonas Vingegaard, with a sprint to the finish.

The duo both picked up three seconds on Britain's Geraint Thomas, who finished alongside his Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Adam Yates, with Tom Pidock a further four seconds adrift.

Stage nine results
1. Bob Jungels (Lux/AG2R Citroen) 4hrs 46mins 39secs

2. Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +22secs

3. Carlos Verona (Spa/Movistar) +26secs

4. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) +40secs

5. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +49secs

6. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) Same time

7. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +52secs

8. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) Same time

9. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar)

10. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic)

General classification after stage nine
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 33hrs 43mins 44secs

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) +39secs

3. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 17secs

4. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 25secs

5. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +1min 38secs

6. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +1min 39secs

7. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 46secs

8. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +1min 50secs

9. Neilson Powless (US/EF Education-EasyPost +1min 55secs

10. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic) +2mins 13secs

[ritchiebaby]

With typical good timing, I managed to miss all yesterday's action and now when I'm at home all day, it's the second rest day. Today saw the circus (sorry, the TdF entourage) travel the 38 kms to Morzine. Quite a easy transfer considering the first rest day involved a 805 km journey from Denmark to NE France. The only real changes in the classifications saw Simon Geschke take the Polka Dot Jersey on 18 points. One point behind is yesterday's winner, Bob Jungels, with Thibault Pinot a further 4 points behind. No doubt there will be many more changes in the next few days.

Tomorrow's 148km stage from Morzine Les Portes du Soleil to Megeve heads north to Lake Geneva at 48kms then south to the finish at the altiport. It involves 4 categorised climbs culminating in a Category 2 climb immediately after the sprint at 124kms. It seems safe to include Pogacar (but he might save himself for the next two mountain stages) in every prediction and you could add Matej Mohoric and Michael Woods in an unchallenged breakaway, or even Lennard Kamna, who won't be considered as a challenger for the Yellow Jersey.

Megeve is one of the posher parts of the region with expensive real estate and sky-high prices generally and is west of Mont Blanc. There are about 450kms of ski-runs in the immediate area, attracting celebrities like Paul McCartney and Brigitte Bardot.

Albertville to Col du Granon Serre Chevalier is the 151km stage on Wednesday, when we have a sprint at only 16kms when just about anybody could claim points, then a Category 2 climb followed by the Category 1 Col du Telegraphe at a fairly steady 7% gradient, then Category HC Col du Galibier at a 10% gradient at the top, finally ending up on a long and winding road to the finish on Col du Granon, also a Category HC with a middle section of over 10%. Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, Geraint Thomas and Aleksandr Vlasov should be there or thereabouts.

A word of warning to tourists - the local website guides make great store of the region's multitude of wildlife to be spotted. What they don't mention is that half the wildlfe consists of nasty, hungry horseflies.

I might be back for Thursday's 165km stage from Briancon to Alpe d' Huez, but I'll leave this anyway. There is an even earlier sprint at 12kms, which is followed by an ascent of Col du Galibier from a different direction (I'd have thought they would have seen enough of it yesterday, but apparently not) and using approx 70kms of the same roads, followed by another HC climb at Col de la Croix de Fer, which looks slightly easier, but is 29km long. Then after all that the last climb is yet another Category HC to the finish, 14kms long but easing off to 5% over the last 3kms.
Time for another photo -
the 21 hairpin bends on the last climb


Finally, Thursday 14 July is Bastille Day, so expect a determined effort from the French climbers. David Gaudu and Romain Bardet would be my picks, but there are others to consider including Pogacar, Roglic, Thomas and Jonas Vingegaard.

[themaclad]

Covid hitting Pogacar's team down to 5 support riders

[themaclad]

Apologies forgot this no more deserving winner of a stage than Magnus

Magnus Cort pipped Nicholas Schultz in a photo finish to win a disrupted 10th stage of the Tour de France after climate activists forced a 10-minute delay in Megeve.

The race was paused 36km from the finish as the protesters sat on the road, with one of them wearing a T-shirt saying, "We have 989 days left".

The activists were eventually removed by police.

In a thrilling finale, Denmark's Cort surged past Schultz to narrowly win.

Alberto Bettiol, who was leading at the time of the protest and had to ride through a cloud of pink from a flare before stepping down from his bike.

Following a 10-minute delay, race director Christian Prudhomme cleared the race to resume.

"Since the government doesn't care about the climate crisis, we need to come and take over the Tour de France to refocus attention on what matters for our survival," said climate activists movement Derniere Renovation in a statement.

"We need to make our government react as they lead us to the slaughterhouse."

Tadej Pogacar held on to the yellow jersey with a lead of 11 seconds over Lennard Kamna, who was among a group of 25-riders to break clear with over 80km remaining.

At one point the German held the virtual race lead as the advantage over the peloton increased to more than nine minutes.

However, the Bora-Hansgrohe rider had to be content with climbing 19 places in the general classification to sit second behind Slovenia's Pogacar, with British riders Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates and Tom Pidcock all remaining in the top 10.

Pogacar's day had begun without team-mate George Bennett, who alongside Australian Luke Durbridge, was one of two riders to withdraw after testing positive for Covid-19.

Another of Pogacar's team, Rafal Majka, also tested positive but was allowed to continue as he was deemed to not be contagious.

With Vegard Stake Laengen already out due to Covid, the loss of Bennett, a key mountain domestique, is likely to be felt sharply by Pogacar and his team with the two most gruelling days in the Alps still to come.

On Wednesday two hors categorie climbs will feature as the peloton tackle the 151.7km route from Albertville to Col du Granon Serre Chevalier.

The lengthy Col du Galibier is the high point of the race at an altitude of 2,642m, while the Granon is the highest stage finish this century.

Stage 10 results
1. Magnus Cort (Den/EF Education-EasyPost) 3hrs 18mins 50secs

2. Nicholas Schulz (Aus/BikeExchange - Jayco) Same time

3. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +07secs

4. Matteo Jorgensen (US/Movistar) +08secs

5. Dylan van Baarle (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers) +10secs

6. Georg Zimmermann (Ger/Intermarche - Wanty - Gobert Materiaux) +15secs

7. Benjamin Thomas (Fra/Cofidis) +18secs

8. Andreas Leknessund (Nor/DSM) +20secs

9. Fred Wright (GB/Bahrain Victorious) +22secs

10. Lennard Kamna (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe) Same time

General classification after stage 10
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 37hrs 11mins 28secs

2. Lennard Kamna (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe)

3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) +39secs

4. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 17secs

5. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 25secs

6. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +1min 38secs

7. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +1min 39secs

8. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 46secs

9. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +1min 50secs

10. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) Same time

[themaclad]

At the moment Pogacar going backwards faster than Sunak

---

Pog loses 2 mins 52 seconds

[themaclad]

Forgot to add about the Demo on Tuesday, the officials took away a few of the demonstrators with a well timed boot

Jonas Vingegaard launched a stunning attack on the final climb of stage 11 to claim the Tour de France lead from defending champion Tadej Pogacar.

The 152km mountain stage from Albertville was set to be Pogacar's biggest test yet in this year's race.

And Jumbo-Visma's Vingegaard, who was 39 seconds adrift of Pogacar in third, burst clear for the 25-year-old's first Tour stage win atop Col du Granon.

The Dane leads by more than two minutes with Pogacar narrowly further back.

Asked if he could believe he had taken the yellow jersey, he replied: "No, it is really incredible. It is hard for me to put words on.

"This is what I always dreamt of, a stage in the Tour and now the yellow jersey."

More to follow.

Tour de France: Stage 11 - as it happened
Cort wins after 10th stage halted by protestors
Stage 11 results
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 4hrs 18mins 02secs

2. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic) +59secs

3. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +1min 10secs

4. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 38secs

5. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +2mins 04secs

6. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +2mins 10secs

7. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +2mins 51secs

8. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz/Astana) +3mins 38secs

9. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) +3mins 59secs

10. Warren Barguil (Fra/Arkea Samsic) +4mins 16secs

General classification after stage 11
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 41hrs 29mins 59secs

2. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM +2mins 16secs

3. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +2mins 22secs

4. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +2mins 26secs

5. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic) +2mins 37secs

6. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 06secs

7. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +3mins 13secs

8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +7mins 23secs

9. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz/Astana) +8mins 07secs

10. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +9mins 29secs