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2021-07-04T12:55:17.844Z
Around 20 riders are in the next breakaway group on the road, at 1:10. Alaphilippe, Kuss, and Guillaume Martin are there.
2021-07-04T12:54:25.223Z
78km to go
They’re onto the valley road now and Poels and Woods have been placed on the back foot.
2021-07-04T12:53:22.180Z
Poels and Woods are the weaker descenders here and they’re lagging. Hamilton and Higuita look strong and they’re with Quintana as the road plateaus. O’Connor is trying to get across, and he does so.
2021-07-04T12:52:21.732Z
Higuita drags his way over to Quintana. Small gaps in that group as they continue down this soaking wet descent.
2021-07-04T12:49:14.285Z
As for the rest of the breakaway, they’re all at least a minute down.
2021-07-04T12:47:40.762Z
Woods, O’Connor, Higuita, and Hamilton catch Poels on the descent. They’re 15 seconds behind Quintana.
2021-07-04T12:43:33.756Z
Here are the new mountains classification standings.
1. Poels – 33
2. Woods – 29
3. Quintana – 24
2021-07-04T12:42:31.186Z
The peloton reaches the top of the Col des Saisies, 6:05 behind the front of the race.
2021-07-04T12:42:07.916Z
Hamilton has caught up with the chase group over the top, so he’s now with O’Connor, Woods, and Higuita.
2021-07-04T12:41:30.332Z
Confirmation that Poels was first to the summit and collects the maximum 10 points to extend his lead in the mountains classification.
2021-07-04T12:40:56.545Z
Quintana drops Poels on the wet descent.
2021-07-04T12:36:42.561Z
It looks like Poels just about hung on there to take the maximum haul of points atop the Col des Saisies.
2021-07-04T12:36:10.384Z
Quintana reaches Poels in sight of the summit and…. bike throws and a photo finish!
2021-07-04T12:35:17.619Z
Quintana attacks and hunts down Poels.
2021-07-04T12:33:14.090Z
UAE have their whole team on the front of the main peloton at five minutes back.
2021-07-04T12:31:56.814Z
Poels is 2km shy of the summit and he hits that plateau, which actually dips downhill. He’s 12 seconds up on that four-man chase group.
2021-07-04T12:31:03.953Z
Woods, O’Connor, Quintana, and Higuita move clear now but Poels is still up the road.
2021-07-04T12:26:58.314Z
The riders in pursuit of Poels are Fraile, Martin, O’Connor, Kuss, Cattaneo, Quintana, Hamilton, Woods, Guerreiro, Higuita.
2021-07-04T12:23:44.814Z
A selection process in the break now on the Saisies. 11 riders join forces in pursuit of Poels.
2021-07-04T12:22:34.724Z
Here’s the full list
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Dan Martin, Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Julien Bernard, Kenny Elissonde, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Patrick Konrad, Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Guillaume Martin, Simon Geschke, Anthony Pérez (Cofidis), Ruben Guerreiro, Sergio Higuita (EF Education-Nippo), Ben O’Connor (Ag2r-Citröen), Warren Barguil, Élie Gesbert, Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Harry Sweeny (Lotto-Soudal), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Matej Mohoric, Wout Poels, Dylan Teuns, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious), Lucas Hamilton, Luka Mezgec, Chris Juul Jensen, Michael Matthews (BikeExchange), Jakob Fuglsang, Alex Aranburu, Omar Fraile (Astana-PremierTech), Pierre Latour, Víctor de la Parte, Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Franck Bonnamour, Quentin Pacher, Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-KTM)
2021-07-04T12:22:05.632Z
Ben O’Connor is also in there – 14th at 8:13.
2021-07-04T12:21:28.378Z
Poels is out for the mountains points but he’s not so far down on GC – 15th at 8:51. In terms of the other GC threats in this move, Guillaume Martin appears to be best placed overall – 12th at 7:28. Those gaps are to Pogacar, and it has to be remembered that most of the main GC contenders are themselves at five minutes.
2021-07-04T12:19:18.496Z
The Dutchman zips through as the leaders come back, and he’s away.
2021-07-04T12:18:49.569Z
Poels attacks now!
2021-07-04T12:17:18.726Z
Ruben Guerreiro attacks to make it over to that trio.
2021-07-04T12:15:17.968Z
Those three ride away. There are some 40 riders in the main move behind them, with the GC peloton at 2:50.
2021-07-04T12:14:08.069Z
Woods goes after Quintana. Omar Fraile is up there too. He was incredible yesterday, doing the work in the main group of GC favourites, where Alexey Lutsenko managed to hang on to move to third overall.
2021-07-04T12:12:54.924Z
This climb is 9.4km long with an average gradient of 6.2 per cent, mitigated by a couple of plateaus.
2021-07-04T12:12:15.523Z
The Col des Saisies begins and Quintana attacks.
2021-07-04T12:11:54.577Z
Warren Barguil gets across to Colbrelli on a short downhill ahead of the Saisies, and the rest of the group is coming back as well.
2021-07-04T12:08:27.551Z
Colbrelli attacks! There are no more intermediate sprints but the Italian champion is in form and he’s away.
2021-07-04T12:06:57.836Z
The lead Alaphilippe-Colbrelli-Matthews group has been caught by that larger breakaway group. We’re nearing the start of the Col des Saisies.
2021-07-04T12:06:08.670Z
Here are the new points classification standings after that sprint
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 168
2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team BikeExchange 130
3 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 102
4 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 99
5 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain Victorious 96
2021-07-04T12:01:52.087Z
110km to go
That lead group is followed 25 seconds later by a large breakaway of around 30 riders that has formed. UAE are marshalling the main peloton at 1:15.
2021-07-04T12:00:10.475Z
Colbrelli and Matthews open up. Colbrelli takes it.
2021-07-04T11:59:43.096Z
Yesterday’s winner Dylan Teuns got across with Colbrelli, along with Stefan Kung. Here comes the sprint.
2021-07-04T11:58:26.558Z
Movistar’s leader is back on his feet. We didn’t see it but he appears to have slid out on a downhill bend. Mas started the day 8th overall, well in the main GC mix (excluding Pogacar of course).
2021-07-04T11:57:19.760Z
Crash. It’s Enric Mas.
2021-07-04T11:57:10.876Z
Colbrelli is going across in a small group.
2021-07-04T11:56:19.024Z
Juul-Jensen is going so hard he forces a three-man split, with Matthews and Alaphilippe.
2021-07-04T11:53:53.599Z
He doesn’t last long as that larger chase group comes back. Matthews is there and his teammate Chris Juul-Jensen is setting pace for him.
2021-07-04T11:53:08.423Z
Higuita attacks
2021-07-04T11:52:16.248Z
The three leaders are joined by a Total rider as Alaphilippe kicks off a new wave of attacks behind. Another small group is coming across.
2021-07-04T11:50:08.727Z
Colbrelli has been joined by Anthony Perez and Sergio Higuita.
2021-07-04T11:49:15.085Z
Geraint Thomas has been dropped again and, more surprisingly, Richie Porte has lost contact too. A miserable Tour so far for Ineos.
2021-07-04T11:47:33.831Z
They catch Martin and Latour, and now Colbrelli attacks.
2021-07-04T11:47:05.314Z
Colbrelli is there in this Alaphilippe move, as is Wout Poels in the polka-dots after his ride yesterday.
2021-07-04T11:46:36.633Z
Alaphilippe attacks again behind.
2021-07-04T11:45:53.455Z
Latour continues his effort as the road continues to rise, and he’s joined by Dan Martin
2021-07-04T11:41:02.744Z
Nairo Quintana was also up there looking for the points, indicating that he’ll also be in the hunt for the dots.
2021-07-04T11:40:29.868Z
Latour had a shocker yesterday and was chasing all day. He’d had a lively start to the Tour and was up there on GC but now has to look at other options, and the polka-dot jersey seems to be one of them.
2021-07-04T11:39:43.990Z
Pierre Latour attacks. He sprints to pip Sweeny to the top of the climb to take maximum mountains points.
2021-07-04T11:38:32.808Z
Ballerini and Sweeny are only a few seconds ahead of this advancing bunch now.
2021-07-04T11:37:22.991Z
But the move is snuffed out. The peloton is fragmenting now. Cavendish is dropped.
2021-07-04T11:36:54.668Z
Patrick Konrad gets across to make it four.
2021-07-04T11:35:52.085Z
Bauke Mollema and Michael Woods go after Alaphilippe.
2021-07-04T11:35:31.286Z
The world champion fell out of the GC picture yesterday so has the freedom to go into breakaways from here on.
2021-07-04T11:35:01.770Z
Alaphilippe attacks!
2021-07-04T11:33:59.785Z
Ballerini drops Sweeny on the climb.
2021-07-04T11:33:41.672Z
BikeExchange come to the front of the bunch now as they take on the climb. That’ll be because we have an intermediate sprint coming up beyond Mégève, at kilometre-32. Michael Matthews will fancy picking up some points there. Sonny Colbrelli can also expect to survive this climb and they’ll hope to distance Mark Cavendish.
2021-07-04T11:32:06.285Z
127km to go
Ballerini and Sweeny hit the Côte de Domancy.
2021-07-04T11:31:26.042Z
Israel are still setting the pace. They are not playing this cool at all. Michael Woods came close yesterday – maybe today is the turn of Dan Martin.
2021-07-04T11:31:06.628Z
Ballerini and Sweeny move out to 45 seconds.
2021-07-04T11:29:50.346Z
After it, the road continues to rise to Mégève before a brief dip down ahead of the big climbing challenges. First come the Col des Saisies, Col du Pré, and Cormet de Roselend before a longer descent and then the long road up to Tignes.
2021-07-04T11:27:24.045Z
The Côte de Domancy is only 2.5km long but averages 9.4%. It found fame during the 1980 World Championships, where Bernard Hinault won on home soil.
2021-07-04T11:21:45.327Z
The pair are 20 seconds clear as Israel continue to control the peloton.
2021-07-04T11:19:16.840Z
It’s Davide Ballerini for Deceuninck-QuickStep and Harry Sweeny for Lotto Soudal.
2021-07-04T11:17:32.954Z
Another attack with one each from QuickStep and Lotto.
2021-07-04T11:17:14.372Z
They are both brought to heel now.
2021-07-04T11:15:35.627Z
The Frenchman appears to be sitting up and waiting now, but here comes a counter-attack.
2021-07-04T11:15:11.874Z
Cosnefroy looks over his shoulder and sees a bunched peloton.
2021-07-04T11:14:13.045Z
We do get an attack now. It’s Benoit Cosnefroy, the AG2R puncheur.
2021-07-04T11:13:53.120Z
We have a flat preamble of just under 20km ahead of the first climb of the day – the short but steep Côte de Domancy. That’s where we should see the real fight for the break.
2021-07-04T11:12:37.539Z
Andre Greipel is on the front, setting pace in a bit of an Israel train. Funny start this.
2021-07-04T11:11:35.261Z
Israel Start-Up Nation move to the front but no attacks yet.
2021-07-04T11:10:42.178Z
We’re off!
2021-07-04T11:08:33.917Z
Don’t know why I said there was one non-starter, and one significant one… There are two with Jumbo-Visma confirming earlier on that Primoz Roglic will not continue. Here’s the full story on that.
2021-07-04T11:06:04.403Z
😁Smiles in Cluses @MarkCavendish 😁 Des sourires à Cluses#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/jC8oGIOn42July 4, 2021
2021-07-04T11:04:14.324Z
We’re on the move. A short neutral zone and then we’re racing, and it should be another fast and furious start.
2021-07-04T10:50:06.742Z
Here’s our story on Van der Poel
Mathieu van der Poel abandons Tour de France to focus on Tokyo Olympic Games
2021-07-04T10:43:49.187Z
One non-starter this morning and it’s a significant one: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix). He yielded the maillot jaune yesterday after a memorable stint in yellow following his stage win at Mur-de-Bretagne. This was his first Tour and he was always likely to leave early to prepare for his season’s major objective: the mountain bike gold medal at the Olympics.
2021-07-04T10:41:40.099Z
It’s been a vintage first week to this Tour but, despite the latest spectacle delivered by Pogacar yesterday, you can’t help feel it has killed this Tour de France as a contest. Where do his rivals – and the race – go from here? We’ll start to get some answers today.
2021-07-04T10:35:26.637Z
Before we get going, why not catch up on yesterday’s action?
Dylan Teuns won the first mountain stage but it will be remembered for the exploits of Tadej Pogacar, who crushed his rivals with an astonishing long-range attack.
2021-07-04T10:33:19.478Z
The roll-out is coming up on the hour, at 1pm local time, and the start proper around 10 minutes after that.
2021-07-04T10:31:49.532Z
We’re in Cluses, where the skies are leaden and some light rain has been falling. It looks like more of the same after yesterday’s wet outing, which will make for a draining day in the saddle and have a lot of riders pining for that rest day.
2021-07-04T10:26:06.324Z
Bonjour. It’s the morning after the night before and there’ll be a few sore heads in the peloton after yesterday’s events. But we go again, deeper into the Alps with another short route that ramps the climbing up to the tune of 4500 metres. We’re heading for our first summit finish of the Tour, up at high-altitude at Tignes, to end what has so far been a spectacular first week of the 2021 Tour de France.
