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Scotty & Izzy LIVE on SN ExtraAustralian falls as Pogacar flexes his Tour dominance
Glenn Moore, AAP • July 15th, 2026 7:34 am
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, in the overall leader's yellow jersey, celebrates winning the tenth stage | Photo: AP
On Bastille Day the French always dream of a local triumph in the Tour de France, but in cycling at present, if Tadej Pogacar decides he wants to win a stage there is little else anyone can do.
Once the Slovenian went solo with 15km to go on stage 10 there was only going to be one victor, and he crossed the line 32 seconds clear of Remco Evenepoel to claim his third Bastille Day win.
French teenager Paul Seixas, the best home hope, was third.
More relevant in the context of the general classification was Jonas Vingegaard finishing seventh, 44 seconds off the lead.
Pogacar is now three minutes, 36 seconds ahead of the Dane, who may already be thinking of looking back, rather than ahead, to protect his second place. Evenepoel is 30 seconds behind him.
Chris Harper was involved in a bruising crash on a tricky descent on stage 10 of the Tour de France | Photo: Con Chronis/AAP
While Ben O'Connor, Michael Matthews and Lucas Plapp each had moments the stage was another disappointing one for Australians, notably Chris Harper who was the worst affected of three riders to crash on a left-hand hairpin on the descent down Puy Mary.
Harper appeared to have injured his wrist, but managed to reach the finish, coming in 83rd, 32:35 adrift.
The highest placed Aussie on the day was Jai Hindley, 28th, 7:09 behind. He remains the best-placed Australian on GC, 31st at 51:48.
Tuesday's stage was a punishing 166.6 km ride from Aurillac to Le Lioran punctuated by challenging climbs in baking heat. Two years ago Vingegaard had pipped Pogacar in a two-man sprint in Le Lioran and while the latter insisted this was not about revenge it was another statement win.
"Today was an incredible day," said Pogacar as he strengthened his pursuit of a record-equalling fifth Tour title.
"The team did a super good job. We had been targeting this stage for a long time, also with what happened two years ago when Jonas beat me in the sprint fair and square. Today I had similar legs to the finish, completely destroyed.
"I enjoyed the day in the final. I didn't know I was going to win until the last kilometres. Then I remembered it was Bastille Day and tried to honour the yellow jersey."
Some cycling fans are unhappy at the dominance of Pogacar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG outfit and there were some boos at the finish.
"To all the guys who were booing: they give us more power," Pogacar added.
Setting off in the Massif Central, in south-central France west of Lyon, O'Connor made an early break but was soon drawn back into the peloton. At the first intermediate sprint, won by Mads Pedersen, Matthews collected points.
With 75km to go and Javier Romo on a solo up the category 2 Cote de Pailherols Plapp worked his way into the eight-strong chasing pack before it was also reeled in by the peloton.
The climbs continued to come and on the category two Puy Mary Plapp dropped back while Hindley and Harper got themselves into a 35-strong group chasing Richard Carapaz's breakaway.
But Harper, his Pinarello Q36.5 team leader Tom Pidcock and Matteo Jorgenson crashed on the way down, though only Harper needed treatment on the spot.
Former Giro d'Italia winner Carapaz went over the top clear but never had more than a minute's advantage, and when Pogacar attacked on the penultimate climb, he took 45 seconds out of the Ecuadorian in the space of a few hundred metres before riding away to win.
