152km to go: “Are they trying to make if difficult for Merlier?” asks Sean Kelly on commentary of these early attacks from Van der Poel for Alpecin-Premier Tech.

154km to go: There is quite a bit of water on the road, an unfamiliar sight after the furnace conditions of the first week or so.

Van der Poel attacks from the front of the bunch again, and gets a gap, with Valentin Paret-Peintre on his wheel.

155km to go: A big, sweeping right-hander is treated with due respect by the riders in the wet conditions. Now Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) is up there.

Adam Blythe wonders what on earth was said in the Alpecin-Premier Tech team meeting for Van der Poel to attack? I fancy there is tension between Van der Poel and Philipsen, but it’s only a hunch.

157km to go: Riders from any number of teams are battling at the front. Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana Team) is up there. Will Lidl-Trek stamp their authority on this before the intermediate?

158km to go: It is seriously strung out at the front. Lots of riders fancy a breakaway day. There is rain in the air, and on the ground. It’s 25km to race until the intermediate sprint.

“Firstly, it is really depressing that people boo Tadej,” emails Andrew. “Would these people boo Einstein or Mozart. He is likely one of the two or three best riders of all time and yet somehow he gets booed for that?

“Secondly Tadej still has some way to go to equal Merckx’s TdF record. Eddy Merckx won the Tour de France five times (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1974). Merckx’s average winning margin was about 11 minutes 50 seconds.

“Thirdly why do the tour organisers still use helicopters to film the race when a modern drone camera is just as good and fly much closer to the riders and a lot cheaper, and can stay in the air longer?”

Did Tom Pidcock sleep well after crashing yesterday?

“Really good. I slept well. But it was a late night, with these stupidly late starts, dinner at 10pm.”

Will he watch England v Argentina in the World Cup semi-final later?

“We’ll watch it, for sure: Hopefully it doesn’t go to penalties. I’m already a big football fan, but I enjoy watching the World Cup.”

And back to cycling: does he want to be a GC rider or keep going for stages?

“I prefer going for stages, but I think this GC thing is something I want to crack one time in my career … in my position I can still go for stages.”

Christoph Roodhooft, Jasper Philipsen’s boss at Alpecin-Premier Tech, tells Hannah Walker on TNT Sports that his sprinter is “feeling better … but that doesn’t mean he will win today.”

Is there any thought of letting Mathieu van der Poel sprint, instead of Philipsen, given the latter’s apparent lack of form?

“No.”

With no awareness of how heat affected the body, some riders ate salted codfish while training, to attune their systems to dehydration; as late as the 1980s, cycling magazines showed pictures of competitors stuffing cabbage leaves down the backs of their racing hats to keep the sun off the nape of the neck.

Thoughts on today’s stage? Or anything Tour de France related? Email me.

The temperate is forecast to peak at 33C in Nevers. Another hot day, but not the full-on heatwave the riders had to deal with last week.

Tim Merlier made the time cut by three minutes yesterday.

There are two categorised climbs today: the Côte de Billonnière is a category-four, coming soon after the sprint point: 1.1km long with an average gradient of 5.8%. The Côte de Billy-Chevannes is a cheeky 1.5km hill, that comes with 37.9km of racing remaining: average gradient 5%.

Tadej Pogacar extended his lead in the Tour de France with another imperious solo victory on the 10th stage to Le Lioran, in the Massif Central. The Slovenian now leads the Tour by more than a three and a half minutes from longtime rival Jonas Vingegaard, who wilted and lost more time to the other podium contenders.

Over a stage with seven categorised climbs, including the first category Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol and Col de Pertus in the final hour of racing, Pogacar again asserted himself over the peloton with a trademark attack on the penultimate climb.

His latest victory, however, was met with some boos from the roadside crowd, something not seen since the domineering days of Team Sky and Chris Froome, almost a decade ago.