Tour de France 2026: Ballon d’Alsace awaits riders on testing stage 13 – live
Key events
Tadej Pogacar is just rolling towards the neutralised start line in Dole, the rollout will be getting underway shortly.
General classification standings
The yellow jersey picture ahead of today’s stage:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 43hrs 04mins 01secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike): +3mins 36secs
3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): +4mins 06secs
4. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +4mins 22secs
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team): +4mins 35secs
6. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): +4mins 44secs
7. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +5mins 08secs
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +5mins 45secs
9. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +6mins 34secs
10. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis): +11mins 49secs
The points classification
On TNT, Adam Blythe said Mads Pedersen fancies today’s stage which would all but end the green jersey race if he could pull it off:
1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 357
2. Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) 317
3. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) 311
4. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 307
5. Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) 239
6. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 210
7. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) 159
8. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 129
9. Milan Fretin (Cofidis) 117
10. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 107
King of the Mountains standings
There are a maximum of 12 points on offer in the polka dot parade today:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 42
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 27
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 19
4. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 18
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 18
6. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 17
7. Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) 16
8. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 16
9. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 14
10. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 12
Here’s how the longest stage of this year’s Tour maps out:
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William Fotheringham
William Fotheringham’s stage guide
Stage 13, Friday 17 July: Dole to Belfort, 205.8km
The first of three days of climbing in north-eastern France and the longest stage of the race, with the intermediate sprint in the village of Mélisey, home to the retired French hero Thibaut Pinot. There is plenty of distance to build a lead, so you would expect a win from the breakaway by a climber who is also a superlative descender, with the first category Ballon d’Alsace – the first mountain pass to feature in the Tour in 1905 – less than 15 downhill kilometres from the finish. With a finale like this, supreme bike handler Tom Pidcock may fancy his chances.
Preamble
Strap in folks, we’re going long today. At least we might get something that resembles a breakaway today. The intermediate sprint comes with 68 of the lengthy 205km to go, so unless the sprint teams fancy trying to neutralise 130-odd kilometres of attacks something will have to give. UAE Team Emirates may decide, as they have throughout this race, to give the escapists a short leash but so long as the composition is suitable this really could be a day where there is a chance of a breakaway winner. The Ballon d’Alsace is the big beast in the road book, a category one ascent of 8.9km at 6.9%, that clearly means the winner will need to be a more than decent climber, but they’ll also need to have the nous to get down the other side. To me it looks like a Richard Carapaz kind of course and EF Education-Easypost are yet to get a stage win in this year’s Tour, but there will be a few frustrated riders in the peloton eyeing this up. Get the snacks in, settle in, this should be (we really hope) a bit of fun.
