Profile of stage 10 of the 2023 Tour de France(Image credit: ASO)
The map of stage 10 of the 2023 Tour de France (Image credit: GEOATLAS)
Stage 10: Vulcania to Issoire
Date: July 10, 2023
Distance: 167.2km
Stage type: Hilly
After the riders have enjoyed the first rest day in Clermont Ferrand on the first week of the Tour de France, stage 10 offers another chance for a breakaway.
The hilly 167.2km stage starts at the Vulcania volcano theme park and heads south to Issoire but is never easy, making it a hard task to get into the breakaway on the rolling roads.
The passage through the Chaîne des Puys area will leave only the strongest riders at the front with the climbs arriving straight from the flag, before the fast ride to Issoire. There are five categorised climbs along the route with undulations characterising the whole profile, which brings with it lots of descending.
Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) are the favourites for the day, but any other breakaway hopefuls will not want to let the multi-discipline superstars into the move with them. Van Aert has narrowly missed out on a stage win at this Tour with three top-five finishes, while Van der Poel hasn't yet challenged for his own ambitions and has featured mainly in Jasper Philipsen's lead-out train.
With a descent to the finish following the final climb, Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) will fancy his chances, especially after looking fantastic on the Puy de Dôme stage, and his teammate Fred Wright is also touted to go well in the British national champion's jersey.
Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) currently leads the king of the mountains classification by 18 points from Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën). With only 13 maximum KOM points on offer today, he will hold his polka-dot jersey but will want a larger buffer with the Alps approaching. Look to see him in the break alongside teammate Magnus Cort as the Dane has been a master in breakaways in the past, especially on profiles akin to stage 10.
The GC group should remain calm today and let the break fight for the win, but both Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) will need to stay safe and attentive as it's often on profiles like stage 10's that an avoidable crash or mechanical at the wrong moment can lose you time.
Pogačar is currently sat 17 seconds in arrears of his Danish rival but with three incredibly difficult mountain stages arriving at the weekend, he'll likely wait until then to reduce the deficit.
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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
