Tour de France: Simon Yates solos to victory on stage 10 as yellow jersey changes hands again

Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) soloed to victory on stage 10 of the Tour de France atop Le Mont-Dore with an attack at the bottom of the climb, as Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) took the yellow jersey.

Fellow breakaway rider Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) valiantly tried to chase down Yates, and at times seemed within touching distance, but couldn't make contact and had to settle for second.

But crucially, third place went to Ben Healy, and after a tense wait to see when the GC riders would came home, he took the yellow jersey off the shoulders of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) who finished some four and a half minutes later.

Yates had been part of a day-long breakaway, that was originally made up of 29 riders in the first part of the stage, but slowly whittled down over the day's eight categorised climb, setting up an attacking finale between only the most elite riders.

After making it into a group of just five riders, Yates attacked at the base of Le Mont-Dore with 3.5km to go, and would never be seen again, claiming Visma's first win of the race and his first since winning the Giro d'Italia.

Behind, the GC battle kicked off on the final two climbs as Visma tried to test UAE, and on the final climb Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) went head for head, as the Slovenian attacked halfway up the climb with the Dane stuck to his wheel.

However, with not much climbing to do, the pair didn't make much ground on the rest of the GC group, eventually only finishing six seconds ahead of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

Healy now leads the race by 29 seconds from Pogačar, who has a minute on Evenepoel on third, with Vingegaard another 17 seconds down in fourth as the race heads into its first rest day.

"I didn't even feel that good out there," Yates said at the finish. "It was a really hard start to be there, and a lot of strong guys, and actually that's why I took an advantage into the final corners at the bottom of the descent before the climb started, because I was looking for a bit of a head start. Then I just did my best from there really.

"It's been a long time [six years since Yates' last Tour victory - Ed.], but also I wasn't actually expecting any opportunities here. Of course we came here fully focused on Jonas and the GC, but the stage played out in a way that I could be there for the stage [win], and I took it with both hands."

How it unfolded

Stage 10 started in the sunshine in Ennezat and, being such a key stage, there was a big fight for the breakaway, with several moves and riders going away early and being reeled straight back in. After around 10km, a large group broke off the front of the peloton, made up of over 20 riders, with more bridging across to grow to 28 after 20km.

In the break was: Campenaerts, Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), Valentin Paret-Peintre, Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep), Healy, Baudin, Powless, Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Alaphilippe, Storer (Tudor), O'Connor, Plapp, Schmid (Jayco AlUla), García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Romeo (Movistar), Armirail, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Champoussin, Velasco (XDS Astana), Cras (TotalEnergies), Woods, Blackmore, Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech), and Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility). Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL) was in the group for a while, but was dropped.

Both Visma and Soudal-QuickStep had riders in the break, but UAE did not, and they also had some issues with Pavel Sivakov dropping early on. The peloton wasn't fully happy with this group, and the gap only grew out very slowly, at just a minute at 30km of racing, and riders still attempting to bridge. Meanwhile, behind, many riders – up to half of the race – were already dropped, many in a group not far back from the GC group, and the sprinters already three minutes down after 30km of racing.

Up front, Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) successfully joined the leaders, making it 29 ahead with two from the Spanish team. However, it seemed the large break itself wasn't fully cooperating either, as soon after, a small group of riders split off the front of the group, pushed on by Sweeny and O'Connor. However, that did come back together, and the gap grew out to over two minutes with 50km completed.

On the first two climbs, Lenny Martinez won the maximum KOM points, putting him into the virtual lead of the classification and laying out his intentions for the day.

Breakaway builds their advantage

After the first 60km, the climbing started ramping up even more, with six categorised climbs still to come in the final 100km. However, UAE Team Emirates-XRG were still keen to keep the break close, and for a long time it was held at under two minutes.

On the Côte de Charade, Ben O'Connor went on the attack and was 30 seconds ahead for a while, but attacks towards the top brought him back in, as Lenny Martinez swept up some more mountain points, and a group of 10 split off from the break. The aggression in the break saw the gap grow to three and a half minutes for the first time.

The 10 up front were Martinez, O'Connor, Campenaerts, Yates, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Healy, Baudin, Arensman, Simmons and Woods, though that soon became 18 as Sweeney, Pacher, Plapp, Castrillo, García Pierna, Storer, Johannessen and Blackmore found their way back to the front with 88km to go. At the top of the next climb, Martinez took maximum points once again, and the break continued their advantage, only losing Plapp along the way.

With 70km to go, the gap was up to four minutes, and all the dropped breakaway riders had been caught. As the gap ticked over four minutes, Healy went into the virtual yellow jersey, with EF doing much of the work in the break. Perhaps surprisingly, UAE weren't happy to just let it go, and were burning through riders behind to try and control the gap.

An attacking finale and new yellow jersey

With 50km to go, UAE had only a few riders left on the front of the peloton in front of Pogačar, whilst up front riders began to drop from the break, who had a gap of five minutes. On the next climb, the Col de la Croix Morand, Ben Healy tried to attack at the base but didn't get anywhere.

With 35km to go, the gap was approaching six minutes, as it began to look like the leaders would be contesting the win, despite UAE's best efforts to limit things, and the attacks began, though nothing stuck for a while.

With 26km to go, Simmons put in a big dig, and drew out a group of six, with Healy, Storer, O'Connor, Yates and Arensman. Back in the peloton, Visma sensed some weakness in UAE and started pacing on an uncategorised climb, with Sepp Kuss briefly chipping off the front and forcing UAE to close the gap. It was then Matteo Jorgenson's turn to accelerate, with Pogačar himself closing that gap, with Vingegaard stuck to his wheel.

In front, Healy was not getting a huge amount of cooperation from his fellow leaders but was still pushing on in pursuit of a stage victory. After attacking all day, Simmons was the first of the leaders to crack, dropping with 14km to go. Onto the official next climb, the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, things briefly calmed, but it wasn't long until the UAE-Visma hostilities resumed.

Over the top of the penultimate climb, Visma-Lease a Bike were leading the peloton, with Pogačar having closed down several gaps himself. With 7km and the Mont-Dore to go, the leaders had five and a half minutes over the yellow jersey group, as a final climb battle looked to be brewing.

With 3.5km to go, on the base of the Mont-Dore, Yates put in his attack, initially followed by O'Connor, but the Brit slowly rode the Australian off his wheel and O'Connor fell away with 2km to go. It was then Arensman who was chasing, and he looked to be coming close, but it wasn't quite enough, and Yates soloed to victory.

Arensman and Healy came home in second and third, and then there was a long wait as the GC group hit the climb five minutes down the road. Visma led things up the climb, with Pogačar isolated, and it was Evenepoel who put in a first attack but was quickly brought back.

Pogačar then attacked before the final kilometre, with Vingegaard able to follow, and once it became clear that Vingegeaard was neither going to work with him nor attack him, the pair slowed up and rode to the finish together. They grasped hands as they crossed the line, but ultimately took just six seconds on a group containing Evenepoel, Onley and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

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