129km to go: The several climbs will slow everyone down, of course, but this stage is being raced particularly fiercely.

Merlier is three minutes behind the bunch. There are four riders who have clipped off the front.

130km to go: “The Frenchies are not giving up,” comes the call on the Lidl-Trek radio.

Meanwhile, the average speed is 495km/h, which is a lot, considering it’s been almost all uphill.

131km to go: This big move is going to get shut down. Three from Movistar, three from Netcompany = too many teams have missed out. And it’s back together. The pace is hot, and the attacks immediately start again when that 11-rider group is shut down.

134km to go: An 11-rider group has escaped at the front!

Castrillo (Movistar)
Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost)
Delbove (TotalEnergies)
Bennett (NSN)
Foss (Netcompany-Ineos)
Aranburu (Cofidis)
Costiou (Groupama-FDJ)
Olivera (Movistar)
Hessman (Movistar)
Kwiatkowsi (Netcompany-Ineos)
Tarling (Netcompany-Ineos)

Three from Netcompany-Ineos there, three from Movistar.

135km to go: Quinn Simmons put in a massive final turn to set up Pedersen for the sprint: but it looked like Kanter had done enough to take maximum points. Fair play to Pedersen though, he kept going when it looked like he was beaten, and got his reward.

Girmay was unable to keep pace with either Kanter or Pedersen: seems he’s not in peak condition at the moment.

140km to go: Did Pedersen hit back to snatch it at the last? I was thinking Pedersen didn’t want to go too early: Kanter came past him on an uphill sprint, and it looked like the XDS-Astana rider had done enough to take it.

Pedersen did take it, says the official website.

141km to go: Photo-finish between Pedersen and Max Kanter for the intermediate!

142km to go: Biniam Girmay is present and correct and ready to sprint. So is Jasper Philipsen. Less than a kilometre until the intermediate.

143km to go: Lidl-Trek also have Juan Ayuso fifth in GC, as it stands, which is indication of how strong their team is overall.

144km to go: Lidl-Trek are leading this out like a sprint finish. Gee-West, Simmons, Vacek at the front, then Pedersen fourth wheel.

145km to go: On commentary for TNT Sports Adam Blythe says there are “65,000 categorised climbs en route”, a slight exaggeration, but he’s saying that expending extra energy now for the likes of Vingegaard is not a good thing.

146km to go: Tim Merlier, winner of two stages at this race, has been dropped and is 40sec behind the bunch. Classic heavy sprinter vibes.

146km to go: Kelly says no need to panic for the guys like Vingegaard who are on the wrong side of the split. We shall see.

147km to go: Vingegaard has missed this move. Lidl-Trek are setting a strong pace, and perhaps no one is worried about gaps now, because they think it’ll all calm down after the intermediate in 6km.

148km to go: A big group has gone off the front, including Seixas and his teammate Tiesj Benoot. Pogacar was indeed caught out. However, he’s taken the law into his own hands, and is riding across to them on his own.

150km to go: The bunch drags up a long (uncategorised) ascent. There are splits all over the place. The heavier riders are toiling at the back. Pogacar was apparently caught out on the wrong side of a split.

152km to go: Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) attacks in patriotic fashion. He’s even wearing the national champion’s jersey. Julian Alaphilippe is there too.

152km to go: Earlier, Sean Kelly opined that Pogacar and team won’t try and control today.

Which goes against most of the pundits – one of whom predicted Pogacar will look to ‘blow the race apart’ on the final climbs.

153km to go: It’s uphill all the way, pretty much, to the sprint point at Lacapelle-del-Fraisse.

155km to go: All back together.

156km to go: 15km to the intermediate. Now Pedersen is back in position, Lidl-Trek begin to work to shut O’Connor down.

Surely, attacking before the intermediate sprint point at 25.5km was always going to be wasted energy? But maybe he gambled that Pedersen’s puncture would change the script.

157km to go: O’Connor, impressively, has bought himself a 14sec lead on the bunch. He’s on his own out in front though.

158km to go: At the back, Pedersen makes contact with the peloton and joins forces with teammate Mathias Vacek, who was waiting to escort him through the bunch.

159km to go: Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) attacks. He wants the stage, which will take a lot of hard yakka from here.

159km to go: Pedersen had a flat on his front wheel. Poor timing to say the least.

160km to go: Javier Romo (Movistar) is in the bunch at the front. They have a handful of seconds. Pedersen meanwhile is trailing 27sec behind the peloton.

162km to go: Mechanical for Pedersen! He changes bikes but it’s a pretty speedy pitstop, and as Rob Hatch says on commentary, there is no panic.

164km to go: Liam “Slocky” Slock (Lotto–Intermarché) is having a go at the front. It’s strung out at the front but no meaningful gap.

With the intermediate sprint early in the stage (in 22km) we may see more breakaway action after that.

165km to go: “Will we see UAE doing what they did a couple of days back and shut down any break just because they feel like it?” emails Matthew.

“Failing that, perhaps could be a day up the road for the usual suspects of Otruba, Veistroffer et al with maybe Healy, Ala [Alaphilippe], Quinn “ugh..” Simmons, and one of the Paret-Peintres?

“Either way, it’ll be roasting.”

The start has been delayed due to an incident on the road …

“Old school race tactics, before the express train to launch the team leader became predominant, would be for UAE to put riders into potential breaks and make other teams chase to protect their positions,” emails Scott. “In particular, Del Toro is a more serious threat to move up to second in GC than anyone is to Tadej.”

This feels like it’s going to be lively, possibly from start to finish …

Under 1km now until we’re off and racing.

Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) has not started due to a fever.

Andrej Hauptman, one of UAE Team Emirates sports directors, has a chat. Will they attack all-out for the stage?

“It depends how the first half of the stage will go,” he says. “Most important is the GC ... we will see the situation after 80km, then see if we go for the stage or not … the guys had a good time on the rest day.

“We know the Tour is long. We will have not so good days, too. When you gain two minutes, you know you can lose it too ... if you can get some seconds [in GC], we will do it. And defend on the not so easy days.”

“Hi Luke,” emails Roland.

“It looks like it’s going to be another hot one at the Tour de F(u)r(n)a(n)ce, with the race riding through areas in orange and red heat warnings. I was at the finish in Bordeaux and the start in Périgueux with my son and haven’t ever sweated that much in my life – and that was just from pottering about in the technical zone and paddock in 37-degree heat! Heaven knows how hard it is for the riders to endure, even if they are athletes at the top of their prime rather than slightly overweight fifty-year olds…

“The most telling example was at Périgueux seeing Egan Bernal come out of the Net-Company Ineos bus to douse himself in water more than half an hour before the signing in ceremony, though, even in a sodden and bedraggled state, he did have the good grace to let me take a photo of him with my son. I also got a nice photo of junior wearing an England t-shirt with Anders Skaarseth in the Norwegian champion’s jersey to commemorate the quarter-final in the evening, not so sure he would have been as accommodating the following day! That said, despite the heat, the riders were generally all very easy-going and generous with their time for photos and a chat, especially Aussies Michael Matthews and Ben O’Connor (though the Lidl-Trek guys completely blanked us, but to be fair they were probably already in the zone, not that it helped against a magnificent showing from Tim Merlier in Bergerac).”

Riding the Tour de France in 40C heat is hard enough without having to race against Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates XRG every day. As the peloton takes a breather, lounges in the shade and rehydrates on the Tour’s first rest day, most team managers are pondering what genuine opportunities they may still have, in the face of Pogacar’s domination, to try to achieve success.

After he and his team were criticised for chasing down breakaways, even if they posed little or no threat to the overall standings, L’Équipe asked: “Is Pogacar killing cycling?”

Luke Rowe, a sports director at Decathlon CMA CGM, is asked about it being Bastille Day. Will it affect their approach for Seixas?

“Same as every other day … is there more pressure to go in the break? … Whatever day it is, it’s not going to impact the way we race … morale’s high. We have to respect that it is Bastille Day. But it makes no difference.”

This is the longest race Seixas has done. How is he recovering? “Great question. We are heading into the unknown. The longest he’s ever raced is eight days so even stage nine was beyond that … honestly, post-rest day, we are really happy. We’ve got eight guys, all fit, all healthy, no illness … the fatigue is there – but it’s not crazy.

“Every day is another banana peel that you could slip on. Today is a difficult day but he’s coping well.”

Finally, Rowe is asked by Hannah Walker of TNT Sports – why does he think UAE Team Emirates rode the way they did on stage nine?

“There’s lot of theories … for me, I mean, I was in the car, I was saying it’s my job to know what’s going on in the bike race, and right now, I have no clue.

“And even now I’m still none the wiser. Just because you’ve got the legs doesn’t mean you should do it. I was looking at the profile thinking, ‘What have I missed?’ But I think it wasn’t the wisest move. Tactically, to me, it made zero sense.”

What are your expectations for today? Mail me.

“We had a good day, relaxed, short ride,” Vingegaard says of yesterday’s rest day. “We asked for a good coffee stop, had some good recommendations, but they were closed … so we ended up somewhere else.

“It was a special stage for me,” he adds of his stage win at Le Lioran in 2024. “A very nice win for me, personally, to win there, coming back from the crash I had. I had some very tough months before that. I have good memories and today is another fight there.

“I won’t give up until we are in Paris,” he says of the GC battle against Pogacar.

Will Paul Seixas and Decathlon CMA CGM aim for a stage win today, on Bastille Day?

The Frenchman is 3min 55sec behind Pogacar in GC – too close to be permitted to go in a big breakaway, you’d have thought. So it will be a question of staying with Pogacar and co until the final climbs and then coming over the top of the dominant Slovenian. Bonne chance!

“Shortish but vicious” is William Fotheringham’s summary:

Stage 10, Tuesday 14 July: Aurillac to Le Lioran, 166.6km

A shortish but vicious stage through the luscious Aveyron and Cantal. A special steam train will convey fans to Le Lioran and Pogacar may well get his personal locomotives moving over the seven categorised climbs including the Puy Mary and the Col de Pertus, the latter coming at 14km to go. The ascents are short but steep so the issue is the cumulative effect of so many efforts; one or two putative contenders will lose the race here. The first test for Pogacar and Vingegaard’s rivals, including France’s bright young thing Paul Seixas, who will get plenty of reminders that it is Bastille Day.

And what of the points classification, AKA the green jersey?

Let’s take a look at the Tadej Pogacar show general classification.