Category: Cycling

• Mavi García breaks clear with 10km left and clings on

• Kim Le Court Pienaar takes yellow from Marianne Vos

The veteran Spanish rider Mavi García claimed victory in a demanding second stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, attacking solo in the closing kilometres to secure a dramatic win in Quimper after a 110.4km ride from Brest.

The 41-year-old Liv-AlUla-Jayco rider launched her decisive move with 10km remaining, opening a gap of about 20 seconds on the chasing pack. She held on through the explosive final climb, crossing the line three seconds ahead of her pursuers.

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The legendary Dutch rider took the win at the line after a speedy and treacherous first stage

49.5 km to go: And Rijnbeek takes the two mountain points on offer while back in the field there’s a couple of near-collisions. It’s a nervous peloton, and last year featured some heavy crashes.

55km to go: The gap is closing, and at 20 seconds, the peloton are within sight as the escapees split. Rijnbeek decides to leave behind Tomasi, and in chase of polka points on that cat.4 climb. She opens up a gap again, to 30 seconds or so.

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• Updates from 184.2km penultimate stage

• Email John with your thoughts

165 km to go: This third-category climb, the Col de la Croix, isn’t easy. The weather overnight has caused some debris on the road. And the rain is pouring down now. Jonathan Milan has dropped off, saving his powder for Paris, no doubt. Asgreen is caught, and Thibau Nys of Lidl and Harry Sweeny go off the front. This is grim for all concerned. Raul Garcia Pierna of Arkea-B&B Hotels makes it a breakaway trio in the pouring rain.

170km to go: Fred Wright leads the pack up the climb as Asgreen forges on. Dropping back, and rather worryingly, Arnaud De Lie is way off the back of the peloton.

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• Pair separated by four seconds last year favourites again

• Reusser, Gigante and Longo Borghini also in contention

The fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes begins in Brittany on Saturday with defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma facing a range of new challengers as Demi Vollering seeks to avenge last year’s cruel four-second defeat on Alpe d’Huez.

While the Polish star has stated her wish to win back-to-back Tours, Vollering, who moved to the French team FDJ Suez at the end of last season, is determined to again conquer the race she won in 2023. Their duel on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez at the climax of last year’s race was one of the most gripping in the history of any Tour de France and led to the narrowest margin of overall victory ever, in either the men’s or women’s race.

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Thymen Arensman clinched his second stage win while Tadej Pogacar comfortably defended his GC lead

“Clearly the only strategy Visma have left is to try to run Pogacar over with their team car,” emails Bob. “That will definitely work.”

“Oh.”

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The overall race remains fully in the hands of the Tadej Pogacar despite the Australian’s breakaway to Courchevel

“Today is another chance,” Jonas Vingegaard tells Matt Stephens. “We will fight until the end. Today is going to be a proper hard stage, and we’ll do everything we can.

“The last, what is it? Five, 6km or so, is super-steep [on the final climb]. Before that, there is a flatter section. In general it’s a very hard climb, a very long climb.

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Jonathan Milan strengthened his grip on the green jersey after winning a crash-marred sprint in rainy Valence

“We are really looking forward,” Milan said before today’s stage. “It’s one of the most important, yes [in the points classification].

Matt White, Luke Rowe and Robbie McEwen are the pundits working with the presenter Orla Chennaoui on TNT Sports.

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• Home rider denies Ben Healy in lung-busting sprint finish

• Tadej Pogacar retains the overall leader’s yellow jersey

Valentin Paret-Peintre stayed ice-cool in the heat to give France its first win in this year’s Tour de France as he prevailed atop the intimidating Mont Ventoux on the 16th stage.

The Soudal-Quick Step rider beat Ireland’s Ben Healy in a lung-busting sprint finish on the Giant of Provence, as Tadej Pogacar retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after keeping chief rival Jonas Vingegaard in his sights on the 21.5km ascent at 7.5%.

Jeremy Whittle’s report to follow

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The first French stage win of Le Tour came on the legendary peak as Tadej Pogacar stayed in full race control

165km to go: Lenny Martinez is up the front, and will fancy another breakaway to land his polka points. The breaks aren’t snagging just yet. Montpellier is left behind as the Med coast appears in view. It looks ridiculously beautiful.

Huw Morgan gets in touch: “Work web filtering means I’m on the live updates only. My colleague Libby has wisely chosen to WFH so she can watch it. I’m not so lucky with a board meeting to attend at 3pm. I’ve been following cycling for 3 years now and I’ve never seen a stage like this. Flat, flat, flat, BANG. Absolutely buzzing to watch it with my wife when I get home from work! We’re Pogacar super fans but hoping for a real tussle on Ventoux with Pog losing some time.”

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From Simpson’s sad death to Froome’s bizarre run, the ‘Bald Mountain’ has always been the place where stuff happens

The decades pass, generations of Tour de France cyclists come and go, but some gruesome things never change. On Tuesday, the survivors of one of the craziest, fastest Tours ever, a race with even less respite than usual, will do as their predecessors have done every few years since 1951: they will crest a rise in the road, and see Mont Ventoux on the horizon. A sinking in the heart will accompany the dull ache in the legs: we’re off to the Bald Mountain once again.

The men of the Tour probably won’t be thankful for small mercies, but they should be. Last time the Tour visited, in 2021, although the background scenario was the same – Tadej Pogacar had smashed the race to bits on the first serious climb and was set fair for victory – the organisers cruelly made them go over the 1,910m summit twice, in two different ways. Wout van Aert might recall that with a wry smile: the Belgian was in his prime back then and he won out of a breakaway.

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Tadej Pogacar followed the Dutch Team Ineos rider home after Remco Evenepoel abandoned early in the stage

We approach the départ réel, the reality of a heavy day in the saddle dawns. Here we go!

In Pau, the rain is coming down but that’s cooled the temperature down to 19 degrees.

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Tadej Pogacar rode away from all his rivals on the Hautacam to forge a commanding 3min 31sec lead in the overall race

“I’m OK. Nothing too bad,” Pogacar tells Matt Stephens after his crash yesterday. “My whole left arm is open, burned off skin. And I hit my hip a little bit and my shoulder, but luckily I was back on the bike quite fast. Today is another day. It’s not the first time I crashed and continued the race. It’s more important the legs than my arm. I have a super-strong team around me. I am so grateful I can rely on them, even if I have a hard day today, but I hope not.

“It’s really sad to lose another young talent,” Pogacar says of Samuele Privitera’s death at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta yesterday. “It’s devastating. It’s one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Sometimes the risks we are taking are too far. I’m really sad for all his family. May he rest in peace … he deserves to “not be bothered” now. It’s a sad loss.”

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• Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen claims win in Toulouse

• Pogacar falls 5km from end but quickly back on bike

Chaos reigned on stage 11 of the Tour de France in Toulouse as the defending champion, Tadej Pogacar, crashed and an anti-Israel protester ran on to the final straight. Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen claimed the stage win ahead of second-placed Mauro Schmid of Switzerland.

A male protester wearing a ‘Israel out of the Tour’ T-shirt ran on to the home straight, as two frontrunners sprinted for victory, before he was restrained by a security officer. The protester, who was also waving a keffiyeh, was about 50m from the finish line. Israel is represented on the Tour through the Israel-Premier Tech team, but no Israeli riders are in the race.

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