Tour de France stage 10 LIVE - Strong break up the road on Bastille Day, but will it be brought back by Pogačar and the GC men?

Campanaerts had been distanced from the break at the top of the climb, but has made his way back on the descent.

Simmons hasn't managed to go clear. Meanwhile the peloton is yet further behind, at 5:30.

40KM TO GO

Simmons attacks at the start of the descent.

Healy take the points at the top. Martinez was third in line, so takes just the 3 points this time.

KOM - COL DE LA CROIX-MORAND

It's not a committed attack, but he's making the others hurt. They're struggling to hang on.

Healy ups the pace...

All the riders have followed, apart from Baudin, who is now finished.

Simmons drags the group up to him.

Campanaerts attacks from the back out the group.

Martinez is struggling to hold on at the back of the group. He may be feeling the effects of sprinting for all of those KOM points earlier.

Still Baudin leads on this climb, but he looks to be nearing the end of his energy.

Of the riders in this lead group, five have won Tour stages in the past - Healy, Yates, Woods, Campanaerts and O’Connor.

The break starts the antepenultimate climb of the day, Col de la Croix-Morand, still all together.

Healy made that move 45km from the finish - just a few kilometres further out from where he made his winning move on stage 6.

But he has not managed to go clear. He started his move from deep down the group, and therefore the others had time to mark him.

Ben Healy has made his move!

HEALY ATTACKS

There are a lot of quality climbers and puncheurs in this break, many of whom are in search of a career first Tour de France stage win - Michael Storer, Thymen Arensman and Valentin Paret-Peintre are such riders, all having won in the other Grand Tours.

He’s been brought back by Baudin, who continues to lead the break.

O’Connor is on the move, attacking just after the summit of the climb.

Lenny Martinez moves to the front to take the five points on offer at the top, uncontested this time.

KOM - COTE DE GUERY

The break is nearing the summit, their lead still at about five minutes.

50KM TO GO

Alex Baudin is leading the break for now, as the last remaining EF teammate present for Healy.

Back in the peloton, Politt looks like he’s done, after yet another fine shift. Wellens takes over for UAE.

Ben Healy's stage win four days ago came from an attack 42km from the finish. Given the success of that move, and his natural tendency towards going long, it feels we can expect him to make a move and strike out solo for the stage win sometime soon.

They’ve been climbing for a while, but have now reached the official start of the day’s fifth categorised climb - Col de Guéry, which climbs at 6.8% for 3.3km.

Having done a huge shift today, Harry Sweeny is done and dropped from the break. His work for Ben Healy earlier is a big reason why the break has such a big lead.

The break’s lead has touched five minutes for the first time. This is looking very good for their chances of contesting the stage win.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG continue to lead the peloton with Wellens and Politt, but are seeing the break move and further and further up the road.

Still the gap rises, to 4:27 over the peloton. Meanwhile the Alaphilippe group has been brought back by the peloton.

60KM TO GO

The gap's grown some more, to over four minutes. If the peloton decide not to chase the break down for the stage win, and sit up, Healy could even find himself in the yellow jersey.

The gap's grown out to 3:55, which means Ben Healy is now the virtual yellow jersey.

The leaders now have 3:45 over the peloton, while the group in between continues to go backwards and will surely be caught by the latter before long.

70KM TO GO

Here were the riders earlier, passing under the shadow of the Puy de Dôme summit that stands tall in this region.

The race seems over for the Alaphilippe chase group. They're nearly 2:30 behind.

Harry Sweeny is setting a fierce pace in the lead group. EF are keen to give Healy as big an advantage over the peloton as possible to stand a chance of another stage win.

There are about 20 riders in the lead group, with a small chasing group featuring Alaphilippe not giving up the ghost yet. The peloton is 3:35 down.

80KM TO GO

One by one riders who missed the splits in the breakaway are being brought back into the peloton.

Martinez looks fully recovered from his ordeal during the first few stages, and has the polka-dot jersey in his sights. He has a significant virtual lead in that classification now:

1 Martinez 22

2 Woods 11

3 Wellens 8

4 Pogačar 7

5 Johannessen 6

Once again Martinez sprint for the points, and once again Martinez gets them. Woods followed for second, with Johannessen third.

KOM - COTE DE BERZET

The lead group has swelled some more, with over 15 riders in it again.

Having finished the descent, they’re climbing again, this time the 7.3% slopes of the 3.4km Côte de Berzet.

The leading ten are 20 seconds ahead of the first chasing group, and 50 seconds ahead of the next. The peloton is 3:30 adrift.

90KM TO GO

A few more riders have joined the leading group - Baudin, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Simon Yates.

The other riders with O’Connor and Martinez are: Woods, Simmons, Campanaerts, Arensman and Healy.

Lenny Martinez was one of those riders, and once again takes the points at the climb's summit.

KOM - COTE DE CHARADE

6 riders have bridged up to O'Connor as they near the summit.

O'Connor still has 20 seconds on the rest of the break, while the peloton is 2:30 behind. The Australian can't have rated the chances of the break's survival, and has taken matters into his own hands.

100KM TO GO

Nobody has followed the Australian yet, and he's already opened up a lead of 20 seconds over the rest of the break.

The Australian has taken off 3km from the summit of this climb, and 101.5km from the finish.

Attack from Ben O'Connor!

Up they go again, this time to climb the Côte de Charade (5.2km at 6.7%).

Having claimed the points on the last climb, Martinez is now the virtual King of the Mountains. Here’s the current classification:

1 Martinez 12

2 Wellens 8

3 Pogačar 7

4 Woods 5

5 Healy 4

The climbs come thick and fast here in the Massif Central. Another category two climb comes after the descent of this one, after which comes yet another.

The pace isn't slow in the peloton, and some riders were dropped out the back on the climb. Their deficit to the leaders is only 1:45.

110KM TO GO

Johannessen joined Martinez and Armirail in sprinting for the KOM points this time, but Martinez just about came past him to edge him into second. Armirail was 3rd.

KOM - COTE DE LA BARAQUE

The break are 1km from the top of the climb. Armirail and Martinez went for it last time - who else fancies going for the polka-dot jersey?

With Simon Yates and Campanaerts up the road, Visma could be able to outnumber UAE later in the stage, and try putting the yellow jersey under serious pressure.

Sivakov is dropped out of the peloton. He looks to be suffering with something today, possibly illness. Having already lost Almeida, Pogačar is running (relatively) low on support.

Tadej Pogačar, safely in the peloton along with all the other GC riders.

The riders are climbing up again, up the 4.8km, 7.3% Côte de La Baraque.

Mechanical for Oscar Onley. It shouldn’t be a problem for the Scot while the peloton’s pace is so calm.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG have taken control of the proton and are setting a steady pace. The team are down a man after Almeida’s withdrawal yesterday, but Pavel Sivakov is back in the peloton having been dropped earlier.

The gap's grown out to two minutes. This is the break of the day - the question now is, will it survive?

120KM TO GO

Anders Halland Johannessen rolls over the sprint line to take the points ahead of Armirail.

The intermediate sprint is coming up in a few kilometres, but nobody in the lead group is up there in the points classification.

They’ve been brought back, but now another rider is trying to attack out of it - Armirail.

The initial split in break was undone, but now two riders have gone clear - O'Connor and Sweeney.

The peloton is now over a minute behind. It does look like this will be the break of the day - but will it stay together?

130KM TO GO

There’s a split in the lead group, with about 8 riders clipping off the front.

As the best represented team in the group, EF will be keen to make this breakaway succeed.

And before you know it Castrillo and Romeo have made it.

Iván Romeo has dropped back from the lead group to try to pace his Movistar teammate Castrillo into it.

Unsurprisingly, given his sublime effort yesterday, Mathieu van der Poel is in the autobus along with the sprinters. He’s the only man in the GC top ten not in the peloton.

The riders are climbing, but it’s an uncategorised hill. The next KOM climb isn’t for about another 20km.

The peloton is now slowing down, and drifting out to close to a minute behind. Pablo Castrillo has jumped out of it and is trying to chase up to the lead group.

To answer the question all those celebrating Bastille Day must be wondering - there are 8 French riders in the break. And some pretty strong ones, too: Valentin Paret-Peintre and Clément Champoussin and Aurélien Paret-Peintre are all former Grand Tour stage winners; Bruno Armirail is looking in great form; Lenny Martinez is a great talent who should love this kind of terrain; and Julian Alaphilippe looks up for it.

The peloton are far from sitting up yet. The gap between it and the lead group is still only about 30 seconds.

140KM TO GO

EF is the best represented team in the break, with Healy accompanied by Baudin, Powless and Sweeny. They’re in a very strong position, especially considering how well this stage could suit Healy.

Alaphilippe is also now in the lead group.

Simon Yates and others have joined the lead group, swelling it to about 30 riders.

Another of yesterday’s crash victims has just pulled out of the race - Søren Wærenskjold, who started the race so well with third-place on the opening stage.

Ben O'Connor pushing on at the front.

Wellens has taken control of the peloton for UAE, prominent in his polka dot jersey.

More riders are trying to bridge up to the lead group, including Simon Yates.

The lead group only has about 10 seconds on the peloton for now.

150KM TO GO

O'Connor is eager to push on with this move. He has a history of losing time in the first week, only to bounce back on a day like this by getting into the day's break and gaining time - could he do the same today?

From the lead group, Lenny Martinez and Bruno Armirail sprint for the KOM points at the top of the climb, with the latter coming out on top.

There are a lot of KOM points on offer today, so a chance for someone to take the polka-dot jersey and lay down a foundation in that competition.

KOM - COTE DE LOUBEYRAT

Ben Healy is the highest placed rider on GC here at 3:55, while O’Connor is the man with the best Grand Tour credentials - thigh considered less of a danger now he’s over 15 minutes down.

The headline names in the lead group are two Bens - Healy, and O’Connor.

Riders are strewn all across the road, with the peloton behind this lage lead group much reduced, and many dropped in small groups behind it.

This lead group is full of strong riders - Arensman, Simmons, Lenny Martinez, to name a few.

At the front, a group of about 20 have a gap of 12 seconds.

Lots of riders are already out the back of the peloton, including, inevitably, many sprinters.

Alaphilippe has been caught.

Actually, the blue jersey leading is not Astana, but Decathlon - Armirail is the rider, who has looked so strong this Tour.

Astana is leading the peloton on the climb, and closing in on Alaphilippe.

Alaphilippe starts the climb with a lead of 10 seconds on the peloton

Alaphilippe attacking on Bastille Day certainly felt like one of the most inevitable things happening at this Tour. He hasn’t shown the form here so far that he did at the Tour de Suisse, but has he been saving himself for today?

The riders are going slightly uphill, but the official start of the climb is still a few kilometres away.

Julian Alaphilippe is the latest to attack.

The break has been brought back and the peloton is all together again.

That's the short flat opening flat section done with - the riders are now on the first classified climb of the day, the 4.2km, 6.1% Côte de Loubeyrat.

Neilands and Madouas have been joined by several other riders.

Krists Neilands was the first rider to get a gap, and he's since been joined by Valentin Madouas.

Victor Campenaerts is riding at the front - that could be a signal of intent that Visma intend to put UAE under pressure, as they have tried to throughout this race.

And they're off!

OFFICIAL START

A couple of riders have pulled out of the race and aren’t present at the start - Georg Zimmermann, who might have been one of Intermarché - Wanty’s best options for a stage like this but went down heavily in a crash yesterday; and EF Education - EasyPost’s sprinting all rounder Marijn van den Berg.

Despite the elevation gain of almost 4,500m, in isolation none of the hills taken on are especially hard — in fact, there isn’t a single category one climb on the menu, with all but one of the seven climbs ranked category two, and none lasting longer than 5.5km. It might be one of the hardest stages of the Tour, but it’s still quite a punchy one rather than test of pure climbing.

The riders are on the move, travelling slowly through Ennezat as they approach the official start.

This is therefore the first real climbing test of the Tour, and should see the GC really start to take shape.

We already have a clear hierarchy in the top ten, with Tadej Pogačar holding a sizable lead already and Remco Evenepoel, Kévin Vauquelin, Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson clustered closely together behind him, but today we could learn which of thee contenders are climbing the best on longer, bigger efforts.

Today’s stage, by contrast, is set to be a lot slower, due to the sheer number of climbs to be conquered. There are eight classified climbs crammed into the 165km route, with a total of 4,450m elevation gain.

Yesterday's stage 9 was the second fastest in Tour de France history, averaging 50.013 kph for just under three and half hours of racing.

For a deep dive into why the Tour is getting so much faster, read our deep dive:

The Tour de France is getting faster, and here's why it won't be slowing down soon

Bastille Day typically evokes exceptional national pride among French fans and riders. In the start town of Ennezat the Tour is already buzzing with activity, and one stage win prospect is Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, who has received a warm welcome in the French town this morning.

Yesterday Tadej Pogačar lost vital wingman and UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate João Almeida, with the Portuguese rider during stage 9 to Châteauroux.

That may lead to slightly more defensive riding from Pogačar.

"I was suffering today on the bike so I can't imagine how much João was suffering," Pogačar said yesterday.

"Now we'll have to reassess but I think we'll manage. We'll keep fighting with seven riders and try to win this Tour also for João."

Our news writer James Moultrie is on the ground in France and has perfectly captured the tactical dynamics ahead of stage 10.

You can read his in-depth preview here:

Tour de France 2025 stage 10 preview - Pogačar vs Vingegaard battle set for 'big explosion' across eight climbs on Bastille Day

In case you missed it, here's our full report for stage 9 of the Tour de France on Sunday, where Tim Merlier got the better of Jonathan Milan.

Bonjour, and welcome to our Live coverage of stage 10 of the Tour de France!