The Tour de France is nearly at its halfway point with 10 of the 21 stages complete, but the outcome looks already decided.
Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogačar showed once again why he’s the best cyclist in the world and one of the greatest of all time by winning Stage 10 of the 2026 Tour on Tuesday. It was his third stage win of this Tour, and the win tightened his grip on the general classification title. Durango’s Sepp Kuss, riding for Visma-Lease a Bike and as a domestique for Visma leader Jonas Vingegaard, did what he could to push Vingegaard to the front, but Vingegaard didn’t have the pace to stay with Pogačar, and he lost even more time in the GC fight.
“We knew this scenario was a possibility,” Visma sports director Marc Reef said in a press release. “We came to this Tour to win, but we also have to be realistic. Right now, Pogačar is the strongest rider, and we have to accept that. We’ll keep fighting all the way to the final stage in Paris. Unfortunately, Matteo Jorgenson crashed today, but the positive takeaway is that he was able to continue.”
Cyclists rode 166.6 kilometers from Aurillac, France, to Le Lioran, France, on Tuesday. It was a mountainous stage with seven categorized climbs, including two Category 1 climbs at the end of the stage and over 12,000 feet of elevation gain.
Durango’s Quinn Simmons was at the front of the race early on in the stage as riders raced toward the lone sprint finish for sprinters’ points. Simmons backed off into the peloton as the sprint finish approached.
The peloton with the GC riders in it was about a minute behind the lead group of 31 riders at the start of the first categorized climb with 101 km left. That lead group split up as the cyclists rode deeper into the stage and on more categorized climbs. Meanwhile, Pogačar was in a perfect position at the front of the peloton with his UAE Team Emirates – XRG teammates with about 55 km left. In that same peloton was Kuss, Vingegaard and the Visma squad, along with Simmons tucked into the middle of the peloton.
Javier Romo was riding solo for over 30 km until the peloton caught up with him with about 38 km left. Richard Carapaz then went off the front, but Pogačar was coming when he started a ferocious attack about 15 km away from the finish and less than a km from one of the Category 1 climbs. He quickly gapped the rest of the peloton and his rivals, and in less than a km, he caught Carapaz to take the lead.
There was no stopping Pogačar when he was out on his own, with Vingegaard leading a chase group of five about 26 seconds back with about 4.5 km left in the stage. However, Vingegaard was dropped from that group on the straight leading to the finish.
Pogačar won in three hours, 58 minutes and eight seconds. Remco Evenepoel was second, 32 seconds behind. Paul Seixas was third, 34 seconds behind, and Vingegaard crossed the finish line in seventh, 44 seconds behind Pogačar.
“I decided to ride at my own pace when Tadej accelerated,” Vingegaard said in a Visma press release. “Looking back, we definitely managed to limit the damage. I got some help from the others on the final climb, which kept the gap from growing much larger. My legs certainly don’t feel bad, but I’m looking forward to the longer climbs later in this Tour.”
Kuss finished Stage 10 in 27th, 7:09 behind Pogačar. Simmons finished in 39th, 21:23 behind Pogačar.
Pogačar leads the GC battle by 3:36 over Vingegaard. Kuss is 22nd in the GC, 20:52 behind, and Simmons is 37th, 1:09:11 behind.
The next two stages are flat stages for the sprinters, with a hilly stage on Friday and mountain stages on Saturday and Sunday.