Healy closes gappublished at 15:22 British Summer Time 22 July
Ben Healy, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Santiago Buitrago have got back to Julian Alaphilippe and Thymen Arensman, 65 seconds back from leader Enric Mas
Summary
Third and final week begins with stage 16 - stage guide
171.5km mountain stage, Montpellier to summit finish at Mont Ventoux
Valentin Paret-Peintre claims first stage win in thrilling fashion
Ireland's Ben Healy denied second stage win of Tour
Jonas Vingegaard attacks but Tadej Pogacar increases overall lead by two seconds
Healy closes gappublished at 15:22 British Summer Time 22 July
Vingegaard mounts first attackpublished at 7.5km to go
Jonas Vingegaard attacks, he's out of the saddle.
Tadej Pogacar is right on his wheel though.
Visma taking turnspublished at 8.5km to go
Visma's Wout van Aert upped the pace in the yellow jersey group but is now done, allowing Sepp Kuss to take over at the front.
Their team-mate Simon Yates is struggling to stay with them though.
Image source, ReutersArensman almost crashespublished at 9km to go
Thymen Arensman just had to swerve to avoid riding into Shimano's support bike, which was at the side of the road.
The Dutch rider was looking down for a few moments as he tries to keep his legs pumping and took his eyes off what's up the road.
Postpublished at 10km to go
Enric Mas has never won a Tour de France stage.
Julian Alaphilippe has not won one in four years.
Thymen Arensman has not won one in three days.
Postpublished at 10.5km to go
Spanish climber Enric Mas is more than 30 seconds ahead.
The yellow jersey group is 5mins 20secs back.
Postpublished at 12km to go
Enric Mas is now more than 20 seconds clear of Thymen Arensman and Julian Alaphilippe, with Valentin Paret-Peintre 1min 25secs behind.
Postpublished at 14km to go
And back in the peloton, Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates are lining up.
Are they teeing up an attack on Tadej Pogacar?
Postpublished at 15km to go
Enric Mas sets off and Thymen Arensman and Julian Alaphilippe can't follow.
Meanwhile, Valentin Paret-Peintre attacks from the chase group, followed by Michael Woods, Santiago Buitrago and Ben Healy.
Postpublished at 16km to go
This is what the riders are battling up right now...
There's an average gradient of 8.8% but some sections are more than 9%.
Image source, ASOPostpublished at 17km to go
Jonas Abrahamsen is then dropped, but Thymen Arensman manages to get back.
Postpublished at 18km to go
Enric Mas follows Julian Alaphilippe, while Jonas Abrahamsen and Simone Velasco bridge the gap.
But stage 14 winner Thymen Arensman of Ineos-Grenadiers is dropped.
Postpublished at 20km to go
Matteo Trentin falls away from the lead group after giving his Tudor team-mate Julian Alaphilippe a helping hand.
Alaphilippe attacks before they're even on the official Mont Ventoux climb.
Image source, EPA'Nowhere to hide' on Mont Ventouxpublished at 23km to go
Jonas Vingegaard on the Mont Ventoux climb: "It's been in the Tour de France a lot of times. A lot of big fights have been battled there. It's an iconic climb, a very hard climb. It's almost 20km long so you cannot hide anywhere there."
To be fair, the riders are already climbing so really, it's a bit more than that.
Pogacar too far adrift?published at 25km to go
Tadej Pogacar is using a new, lighter bike today. Speaking before the stage, he said: "It's a nice thing to do from Colnago, to bring down the bike so a super-low weight. This is what I've been wishing for for a long time, and I think today's the day to have this kind of bike."
But with the gap to the peloton now more than six minutes, is that too much time for Pogacar to make back up the Mont Ventoux - even with that lighter bike?!
Who's in the breakaway?published at 14:41 British Summer Time 22 July
- Jonas Abrahamsen (Nor/Uno-X Mobility)
- Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Tudor)
- Thymen Arensman (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers)
- Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar)
- Matteo Trentin (Ita/Tudor)
- Simone Velasco (Ita/XDS Astana)
Postpublished at 30km to go
The six leaders are about to reach the commune of Bedoin and the first slopes leading to the Mont Ventoux climb.
The chasers are 1min 40secs back, with the peloton trailing by 6mins 25secs.
Postpublished at 35km to go
Fred Wright was in the lead group but has just suffered a puncture.
There's now six riders out at the front, with 1min 45secs to the chasers.
Riders set for headwind on Mont Ventoux climbpublished at 40km to go
Cross winds were forecast to pick up at this point in the stage. Let's see if that causes any more splits en route to the foot of Mont Ventoux.
In the last 6km of the final climb, from Chalet Reynard onwards, the wind will blow against the riders and the summit is completely exposed, hence why it's nicknamed 'the bald mountain'
Speaking on TNT Sports, former Tour rider Robbie McEwen called the iconic climb "horrible". It's set to be even worse later!
Image source, Reuters
Ouch! - Gachignard struggling with stomach problempublished at 45km to go
As it stands, the time cut would be about 42 minutes, and Thomas Gachignard is currently a few seconds beyond that having lost more than six minutes in the past half hour.
According to his TotalEnergies team, the French rider is suffering from stomach issues.