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Here are the updated KOM rankings. Martinez is closing down on Pogačar, now just 13 points behind:
Vauquelin was dropped on that climb, and is 20 seconds adrift from the peloton.
The three leaders are 35 seconds ahead of the Campanaerts chasing quartet, and 45 seconds ahead of the peloton.
60KM TO GO
The riders are already done descending on the cruelly short downhill off the Col du Pré, and will be climbing again soon up the category two Cormet de Roselend.
Martinez is allowed to take all 20 points at the top of the climb uncontested. He’s reigniting his campaign for the polka-dot jersey, but still has to climb very well to take all the points he needs to dethrone Pogačar.
KOM – COL DU PRE
And now he’s caught them again! The Frenchman is having to dig so deep on these horrible gradients.
Paret-Peintre has been dropped again.
Well, he’d almost bridged up – he’s facing an agonising challenge to close the last few bikelengths. Now he is on their wheels.
Paret Peintre has bridged up to Roglič and Martinez.
Roglič and Martinez are 2km from the summit. They lead Paret-Peintre by 5 seconds, a group containing Rubio, Campanaerts, Armirail and Foss by 30 seconds, and the peloton by 48 seconds.
Vauquelin is drifting towards the back of the peloton. He had to dig very deep to limit his losses yesterday, and looks like he faces another hard day in the saddle to defend his 7th place on GC.
It’s no surprise to see so many riders struggling on this mountain – averaging 7.8% for 12.6km, including many sharp ramps up its many hairpins, it’s described by some as the hardest of this whole Tour.
Roglič and Martinez are looking strong. They’re 10 seconds ahead of Paret-Peintre, and almost 40 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Martinez and Roglič have gone clear of the other three.
UAE still have healthy representation in the break. Tim Wellens leads, with others also surrounding their leader Pogačar.
Valentin Paret-Peintre is the 5th rider to join the lead group.
Visma have lost a lot of riders from the peloton already – Jorgenson and Van Aert were dropped early, and now even Kuss is out the back.
Roglič, Rubio and Armirail have joined Martinez.
Martinez has bridged up to the leaders and attacked them. They’re about 20 seconds ahead of the peloton.
70KM TO GO
Storer, Rubio, Campanaerts and Armirail have gone with Roglič.
That group has been brought back by the peloton, but Roglič is still keen and trying to form a new lead group.
More riders have joined the lead group again, including the Visma duo of Campanaerts and Kuss.
About 8 riders have joined the two Bahrain men, including Roglič and Johannessen.
Two Bahrain riders have clipped off the front of this breakaway group – Stannard and Lenny Martinez.
8th and 9th place on GC, Tobias Halland Johannessen and Ben Healy, are also now in this lead group, which is getting ever bigger.
Jegat is also in this lead group, perhaps hoping to jump into the top ten. As is Arenesman, who will have his eye on KOM points.
This is a fascinating attack from Roglič. After their tactics backfired yesterday, you might have expected Red Bull to ride more conservatively, but are happy for the Slovenian to leave the side of Lipowitz, despite the German’s slender hold on third-place.
Roglič and Baudin are in a group of about 8 riders, 10 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Primož Roglič is on the attack again! He’s one of the man following this Baudin move.
Abrahamsen has been caught and passed.
As they begin the climb, the attacks do indeed commence – Baudin kicks things off with riders trying to follow.
COL DU PRE
Here’s the updated points classification. Pogačar did not bother to take any points again, meaning Milan now has a very healthy advantage:
Abrahamsen has a lead of 10 seconds, but behind nobody seems interested in attacking yet. They might be waiting for the start of the climb, Col du Pré, coming up soon.
Abrahamsen has a gap, but no riders have joined him.
80KM TO GO
Guess who? Jonas Abrahamsen kicks things off with an attack out of the sprint.
Simmons leads out Milan, and Milan takes the points ahead of Girmay and Turgis. They were happy with that order over the line, with nobody launching into a sprint.
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT
Milan is 5th in line, 1km away from the sprint.
Mechanical for Lusenko. That’s going to make it hard for him to go on the attack after this sprint, if that was his plan – and it may well be, given the form he’s been showing.
Just 4km until the intermediate sprint. It seems Lidl and Milan will be allowed to take the points before the action kicks off.
If this goes on until the intermediate sprint, this already reduced stage is in practice even shorter, to just 80km of racing. We can therefore expect a very explosive, intense day of racing, that could get very chaotic.
No riders are attempting to attack, all happy to allow Lidl-Trek to control the peloton for now.
Lidl-Trek are indeed adopting the same ploy as yesterday, moving to the front of the peloton right from the flag and controlling the race with a steady pace.
And they’re off!
OFFICIAL START
The sun is shining on the riders at the start, but the weather could become a factor later in the day – it’s just started hailing at the finish atop La Plagne.
There have been no abandons overnight, meaning we still have 161 riders in the race.
The other jersey wearer today is Jonathan Milan.
There’s a big cheer from the crowd at the unofficial start as the riders take off. They’ll ride for 5km or so before Prudhomme waves the flag.
Florian Lipowitz remains in the white jersey, but both that and his third place position on GC is now under serious threat from Oscar Onley, who yesterday moved to just 22 seconds behind him. You imagine the German will ride much more conservatively than then, when he launched a long-range solo attack, but does he have the legs to fend off Onley?
This stage might have been shortened, but there’s still a serious amount of climbing to be done. The riders must complete two hors category climbs – the Col du Pré first up, then La Plagne at the finish.
Incidentally, Jonas Vingegaard will be wearing the polka-dot jersey on loan from Pogačar, having gained points at two of yesterday’s hors category summits.
Today will be the last stage in the High Alps, and therefore the last opportunity for Jonas Vingegaard to use his nearly-unparalleled climbing speed in the mountains. The Dane has the beating of everyone on the big mountains – that is, all expect the man in the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar.
Ben O’Connor was the victor yesterday, following in the footsteps of Thymen Arensman at Superbagnères by being the lone breakaway rider not to be caught by a charging Tadej Pogačar. Here’s what the Australian had to say when reflecting on his ride.
Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL is the next on the sign-on podium before stage 19. It will be fascinating to see if he can snatch third place on the podium from Florian Lipowitz after reducing the gap to just 22 seconds.
Geraint Thomas signs on with his Ineos Grenadiers and his reminded that he set-up his 2018 Tour victory with success on stage 11 that also started from Alberville.
This morning everyone has been analysing and discussing the racing of stage 18.
As we step-up our live coverage, the riders are signing on Albertville. The good news is that the sun is out.
The Tour de France was disrupted yesterday evening by the news of “the discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located specifically in the Col des Saisies has necessitated the culling of the animals,” the ASO stated in an announcement.
The result was a shortening of stage 19 form 129.9km to 95km, and you can read the full story here:
Cow contagion forces Tour de France organisers to re-route stage 19, shortening to 95km
Bonjour et bienvenue to Cyclingnews‘ live coverage of stage 19 of the 2025 Tour de France !
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