Postpublished at 16:01 British Summer Time 19 July
Felix Gall attacks from the yellow jersey group and soon catches Tobias Johannessen, Einer Rubio and Carlos Rodriguez.
Summary
182.6km mountain stage from Pau to summit finish at Luchon-Superbagneres - stage guide
Thymen Arensman wins first stage, ahead of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard
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Postpublished at 16:01 British Summer Time 19 July
Postpublished at 10km to go
Thymen Arensman's lead is now 2mins 30secs over Tobias Johannessen, Carlos Rodriguez and Einer Rubio.
The yellow jersey group is now just 15 seconds further back.
Postpublished at 15:58 British Summer Time 19 July
Marc Soler's work is done and UAE team-mate Jhonatan Narvaez now drives the GC group, with Visma's Simon Yates right by him.
Postpublished at 15:57 British Summer Time 19 July
Thymen Arensman is charging up the climb.
Soler drives the GC group, followed by Pogacar, Narvaez, Adam Yates, Vingegaard, Campenaerts, Vauquelin, Roglic, Lipowitz, Gall, Aurelien Paret-Peintre, Scotson, Onley, Healy, Tejada and Jegat.
Postpublished at 15:56 British Summer Time 19 July
Mountains, 182.6km, Pau to Luchon-Superbagneres
Strap yourselves in folks...
Image source, ASOget involved Get Involvedpublished at 15:55 British Summer Time 19 July
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The only thing that can beat Pogacar is his own ambition to win lots of stages. Therefore put people up the road and provide no support in peloton, and hope he wears himself out chasing. Secondary benefit is Visma can use those up front as support if he does break whether today or someday next week
Anon
Vingegaard 'doesn't know' what to expect from Pogacar & UAEpublished at 15:48 British Summer Time 19 July
Jonas Vingegaard is second in general classification, just over four minutes behind race leader Tadej Pogacar.
On what to expect from Pogacar and his UAE team today, Vingegaard added: "I don't know, to be honest, because he won the past two stages.
"So it could be that they want to go for the stage again or they leave it as a breakaway stage."
Postpublished at 15km to go
Thymen Arensman now has a lead of 1min 55secs.
UAE's Marc Soler is driving the bunch 3min 15secs behind, and Tadej Pogacar also has fellow team-mates Jhonatan Narvaez and Adam Yates with him.
Image source, EPAI have to believe I can make a difference - Vingegaardpublished at 15:40 British Summer Time 19 July
Jonas Vingegaard speaking before today's stage: "I showed yesterday that I was more or less back to my normal level. I just have to believe that if I perform at my best level, at one point I can make a difference."
On today's finish: "It's a very long climb. Officially it's 12.5km or something but I would say, unofficially, it's 16km. I did a recon and I was a bit surprised because, basically, when you go out of Luchon it starts. It's a very hard and long climb."
Postpublished at 20km to go
Thymen Arensman flew down the descent, followed by the peloton, and has maintained his lead.
While following the riders down, the TV cameraman panned to his bike's speedometer. It was up to 99km per hour!!
Image source, EPAPolka-dot jersey - KoM standings after penultimate climbpublished at 25km to go
- Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain Victorious) - 60 points
- Michael Woods (Can/Israel-Premier Tech) - 38 pts
- Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) - 37 pts
- Thymen Arensman (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers) - 28 pts
- Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) - 27 pts
Postpublished at 15:25 British Summer Time 19 July
UAE team-mates Pavel Sivakov and Marc Soler have taken over at the front of the peloton, which summits the Col de Peyresourde 3mins 30secs after Thymen Arensman.
Polka-dot jersey - Arensman takes maximum KoM pointspublished at 30km to go
Thymen Arensman is first over the top of the Col de Peyresourde, 1min 20secs before the chasers:
- Thymen Arensman - 10 points
- Lenny Martinez - 8 pts
- Valentin Paret-Peintre - 6 pts
- Tobias Johannessen - 4pts
- Carlos Rodriguez - 2 pts
Image source, ReutersArensman takes leadpublished at 34km to go
Thymen Arensman has gone clear at the head of the race.
The Dutch debutant swiftly builds a 50-second lead on the category one climb.
Arensman attackspublished at 36km to go
Simon Yates, Ben O'Connor and Einer Rubio bridge the gap to the lead group, but Thymen Arensman immediately tries to lose them as the Ineos Grenadiers rider sets off.
Tobias Johannessen and Lenny Martinez try to follow.
Job done for Politt and UAEpublished at 38km to go
Image source, Getty ImagesTobias Johannessen, Thymen Arensman and Carlos Rodriguez have chased down the lead trio early in the climb up the Col de Peyresourde.
Meanwhile, Nils Politt has pushed the pace at the front of the peloton to close the gap for UAE team-mate Tadej Pogacar.
The German veteran then signs off to a TV cameraman. That's his job done for the day.
What climbs are to come on today's stage?published at 40km to go
Mountains, 182.6km, Pau to Luchon-Superbagneres
The leaders are now approaching the penultimate climb of the day. Here's when each of today's last two climbs start, how long they are and the average gradient:
- 39km to go - Col de Peyresourde - 7.1km at 7.8%
- 12.4km to go - Luchon-Superbagneres - 12.4km at 7.3%
Pogacar climbs to sixth on all-time list of stage winspublished at 45km to go
We've not mentioned Tadej Pogacar much yet, what with all that drama with Remco Evenepoel withdrawing from the race, but this could be shaping up to be another Pogacar win.
The Slovenian superstar won the past two stages to not only regain the race lead and build a commanding advantage, but to overtake Nicolas Frantz on the all-time list of Tour de France stage wins.
Postpublished at 50km to go
The lead trio are now 1min 45secs ahead of the first chasers, and 3mins 40secs clear of the peloton.
Will that be enough to hold off the leading GC riders?
Martinez is caughtpublished at 55km to go
The peloton reached the Col d'Aspin summit 3mins 35secs after Lenny Martinez.
Further up the road, Sepp Kuss and Valentin Paret-Peintre have joined leader Martinez.
The Frenchman actually slowed down to let them catch up. He's fulfilled his main aim for the day, to hit the top of the King of the Mountain standings.