DISCUSSION Tour de France Stage 10 | What else can Visma do against Pogacar? Healy's greatest career achievement?

July 14th is a date marked in red on every cycling fan’s calendar. Bastille Day has given us some of the most iconic and unforgettable moments in Tour de France history, and today was no exception. The stage was brutal from the beginning. With more than 4400 meters of climbing, the terrain was an unforgiving up-and-down course, with no room for rest.

As usual, the stage started really fast, and we didn’t have to wait long to see the breakaway being formed. Up to 29 riders were part of it, a clear sign of how much belief there was today in its chances of success.

Ben Healy, Julian Alaphilippe, Simon Yates, Lenny Martinez, Ben O’Connor, Thymen Arensman… The front group was truly strong, and the peloton knew from the beginning that it would be a difficult task to chase them down.

EF - Easy Post was the squad with the most riders in the break, and the team worked hard to form a large enough gap to allow Ben Healy to assault the yellow jersey. He gave it all and was able to meet his goal, but he fell short of winning the stage, which ended up in Simon Yates’ hands.

The Brit waited for his moment to launch a powerful attack, and he added to his palmarès another Tour de France stage win.

The contenders for the general classification provided an exciting spectacle. Team Visma | Lease a Bike set off the fireworks at the end of the stage, with a determined Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss launching attacks to try to destabilize Pogacar and the UAE team. Finally, no significant differences were created among the GC guys.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

This stage must be analyzed in parts, first the fight for the partial victory and then the fight for the general classification. We'll start with the battle for the breakaway between the number of riders who were present today.

A breakaway win was to be expected and so it was. Simon Yates was ultimately the strongest of a group of top cyclists that included Ben Healy, Ben O'Connor, Michael Storer, Thymen Arensman and more. He was the best pure climber and he proved it on climbs that are not as hard as the ones he has accustomed us to shine on. After his Giro d'Italia, this victory means that he is completing a 2025 season of notable high - outstanding.

As for the strong men in the race, Visma declared that he was going to go all out now by attacking Pogacar and he is delivering. Matteo Jorgenson has been stratospheric and, with the absence of Almeida, they show they could have a good 2 vs 1 in the high mountains, although that is still a long way off.

Pogacar rode calmly, knowing that Ben Healy could snatch the yellow jersey at the end of the day and he let him do it. The Slovenian wants to save himself as much pressure as possible and if he can avoid getting on the podium every day and being forced to be in control on every stage, all the better for him.

Finally, as for the Spaniards. Pablo Castrillo and Raúl García Pierna performed very well, but they showed their lack of quality in a first level breakaway in a Tour de France. As for the men in the general classification, Carlos Rodriguez has been better and is gently approaching the Top 10, while Enric Mas has had a very bad time and has again lost a good handful of seconds.

This was a good day of racing. Most of it centered around what Visma would do. They did good placing two riders in the break, and they did deliver on the expectation of strong attacks but they did one simple and clear thing wrong which was that Matteo Jorgenson attacked on the climbs every single time, where for Pogacar it's easy to answer. Not once was it on the flat or downhill where he would perhaps not answer if a gap opened, which to me is a very obvious tactic to use, but perhaps not to them.

Ultimately though the team did win the stage with Simon Yates, Jonas Vingegaard resisted the very explosive attack of Pogacar on the final climb and Jorgenson himself gained time on several of his rivals whilst maintaining the difference to Pogacar so it's a good day overall for them.

UAE in my opinion burned through Sivakov, Politt and Wellens for no purpose, it looked clear that the team wanted to give away the yellow jersey but still they put their men to work to exhaustion whereas they could've taken it a few minutes more slowly for the same result in the end.

UAE lose yellow to Ben Healy but the writing was on the wall as soon as the breakaway was formed. UAE's tactics are questionable in my opinion in the long-term, whilst Visma is racing strongly but simply does not have the firepower to damage Pogacar unless it's Vingegaard attacking directly.

But he won't. Both Vingegaard and Pogacar are giving the impression that they don't want to give their 100% unless they drop each other, and are continuing a mental battle into the mountains. No-one wants to give away their game fully.

Healy was likely the strongest on the day but pulled off an even more important feat (within context, he's won a stage already) of getting the yellow jersey; the breakaway battle was between the very best men who could get in the group and Yates continues a brilliant season.

A large breakaway with strong names predicted a good battle for the mountain points and the stage win.

Lenny Martinez decided to be the French hero of the day, picking up plenty of mountain points and moving into the lead of the classification. But there were two surprises on Bastille Day. The victory of Simon Yates, a pure climber, who anticipated the final attack, to which only Ben O'Connor responded, only to give in later, and Thymen Aresman, who didn't give up until the last few metres.

The other surprise was Ben Healy. What a pleasure it is to watch this boy ride. I've said it before and I'll say it again: he's one of those lads who, when he gets into a breakaway, always comes out on top. He didn't win the stage today, but he earned the merit of climbing up to the podium to wear the yellow jersey. Admittedly, it only happened because the UAE wanted it to, but it's still a remarkable achievement.

The men in the general classification... more fireworks were expected, but more than their fear of attacking, there was the fear that they wouldn't have the legs in case they were counter-attacked. The tiredness was evident. Visma even had Kuss, Jorgenson and Vingegaard, against Pogacar and Evenepoel. Why didn't they do more? They isolated the Slovenian, then dropped back and let the UAE men catch up.

Something tells me it'll be the same in the high mountains. 3 Vismas for Pogacar. And in the end the UAE man wins.

Vauquelin faltered today, as did Skjelmose, which is a shame in the fight for the overall. Lipowitz and Roglic show that Red Bull is alive, or could be reborn in the next two weeks. Not for victory, but for honour.

Am I the only one who feels a bit disappointed by what we saw today? I am not speaking about the breakaway battle, which was awesome and delivered us some very special moments, but about the GC fight.

There had been plenty of talk about the possibility of Visma | Lease a Bike trying a surprise strategy to attack Pogacar, and while they did manage to place two riders in the breakaway, not much more came of it. Yes, it's true they kept trying relentlessly, with Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss particularly active, but I'm not entirely sure the approach was the right one.

Without Almeida and Sivakov (he was apparently ill today, but he completed the stage), the UAE team was left with 5 riders alongside Pogacar. They were chasing the breakaway for a long time (it seemed at the beginning as if they wanted to protect the yellow jersey), which caused them to burn Nils Politt and Tim Wellens from early on.

So, UAE was left with a tired team while Visma stayed fresh, waiting for their moment to come. And in the end, all their movements were in the uphill sections, where Pogacar has no problems responding to attacks, especially if they are as weak as today. I was expecting Visma to attack in the flatter sections as well, a terrain that Matteo Jorgenson masters, where Pogacar could have more trouble responding if his team doesn’t help.

Eventually, it was easy to guess that Pogacar would also try his luck with a late attack. Vingegaard responded very well, but nothing else happened apart from that.

Today’s stage disappointed me because I was expecting some of the outsiders to try some movements in the final part of the stage. Remco Evenepoel, Roglic, or Florian Lipowitz were some of my picks today to try to surprise. Only Evenepoel tried a harmless attack, and it could have worked because neither Pogacar nor Vingegaard tried to follow his wheel, but Remco’s pace was finally not fast enough.

It looks like every rider respects Tadej and Jonas so much that they do not dare to attack. But today showed why there’s no need to be afraid. Those two are so focused on marking each other that they probably won’t react to an attack unless it comes from a UAE or Visma rider. That’s exactly why it’s worth trying; you never know what might happen.

The positive surprise to me was the breakaway battle. The composition of the front group already anticipated the exciting showdown that we eventually saw. Ben Healy deservedly obtained the yellow jersey. He rode intelligently and proved why team effort is key in a race like the Tour de France.

Visma found an unexpected gift today: the stage win. It was not in their plans initially, but they ended the stage with a good taste in their mouths.