Tadej Pogacar's mother, Marjeta, has enormous respect for how Jonas Vingegaard has risen from lying in the ditch in the Basque Country to riding on the level that nearly rivals the Slovenian himself at this year's Tour de France. However the yellow jersey is currently in the hands of Pogacar, who no...

There have been a somewhat surprisingly high number of spats between riders at the 2024 Tour de France. Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen have been exchanging words, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard have traded barbs and now Maxim van Gils and Amaury Capiot are involved in a war...

On stage 13 of the 2024 Tour de France, UAE Team Emirates' Adam Yates found himself up the road early on. Given his presence however, the breakaway was allowed no leeway by the peloton, earning Yates no friends in the process."I told Adam Yates fifteen times to sit up and he said no because his tea...

Nothing but tough Tour de France for Jasper Philipsen who, despite two first and two second places is still nowhere near the green jersey wearer Biniam Girmay. The Belgian had bad luck to get caught up in a crash on third stage, while in stage 6 it was a strike of jury who relegated Philipsen from s...

What can Jonas Vingegaard achieve in this Tour de France seems to be a question with a growing answer throughout these past two weeks. The Dane has matched Tadej Pogacar on several key occasions and has beaten him in the Slovenian's own terrain on stage 11. Tim Heemskerk, mastermind behind the defen...

Emotions run high at the Tour de France, and as the weeks go by riders start to feel the fatigue more but also the pressure to achieve results. Stage 13 was the 9th fastest ever stage in the history of the race and plenty riders were angry at the end over Adam Yates' presence in the breakaway; but a...

The battle for potential Grand Tour contenders is becoming more and more intense, with teams look for promising talents from very young age. Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe already have secured the services offour-time grand tour winner Primoz Roglic until 2025, however the head sports director Rolf Al...

Movistar Team are having a disappointing Tour de France and it's not showing signs of improving. Fernando Gaviria has been close but has not won in the bunch sprints whilst Enric Mas GC aspirations have evaporated into thin air. Bradley Wiggins, who has battled this team in the past, can't help it b...

While we have witnessed another intense battle at the front of the race for the stage (and overall) victory, for Intermarch - Wanty today's stage was more of a formality. Yes, Louis Meintjes was in the mix from the breakaway, however it was long clear that it will between GC favourites onPla d'Ade...

A big day in the Pyrenees and a big day in France as its le 14 Juillet, Frances national day.Adet at a time: it looked like plan, UAE rode tempo all day with Nils Politt almost doing an hour on the front to keep the breakaway in range, Tim Wellens toiled too. On the final climb Ben Healy dropped David Gaudu to go solo and the last survivor from the breakaway but behind UAE accelerated. Adam Yates attacked and this had Visma chasing and then Tadej Pogaar himself attacked with 4.5km to go.This was a trenchant attack, nobody tried to follow. Jonas Vingegaard seemed to compose himself and then set off in chase, distancing Evenepoel. Yates worked briefly as a relay. It all looked like textbook stuff but was apparently invented in the moment.For a moment it looked as if the gap had stabilised and Vingegaard was going to float across. Then Pogaar began to pull away. At the finish Pogaar had 39 seconds on Vingegaard, add the time bonus for the win and hes now almost two minutes up overall. This gap is wide now, Vingegaard cant hope for a perfect time trial to turn the tables. Now has to find a way to take time in the mountains just to close the gap. Starting today? Not easy.The Route: 198km and 4,800m of vertical gain. It starts straight up the Peyresourde and on the steeper side, plenty of riders can be dropped here. One the characteristics of todays is the long valley roads in between climbs and the first flat section concludes with the intermediate sprint.The Col de Ment goes up the side famous for Luis Ocaa crashing. Its steep with long ramps at first and then a series of hairpins at the top. The descent is regular and on a wide road.The Portet dAspet is steeper still, over 9% average but with long moments at 12%. The descent is more regular and as it eases theres over 50km to the next climb.The Col dAgnes opens with two kilometres at 10% and then eases. Theres no big descent at the top, the passage across to the uncategorised Port de Lers, 3.5km at 6.5% and then downhill to the valley and 20km of valley roads.The Finish: theres a flat approach on the valley, the race turns onto a side road and, just like Alpe dHuez, the road rears up right from the start. Unlike the other climbs of the day with their narrow roads and varying gradient the road to the Plateau de Beille is a much more regular climb with a wide road. Its still hard though, relentlessly at times as it climbs through woodland and only eases just before the line by which time the race is above the tree line.The Contenders: once the race is well-established you can start to see the same names in the breakaway but its not easy to pick Ben Healy (EF) again as he must be rinsed, he can try but might prefer to wait. DSM missed the move and Romain Bardet is the obvious contender, especially as he likes longer raids.Plenty of talented names are now well down on GC. Jai Hindley (Red Bull), Enric Mas (Movistar), Simon Yates (Jayco), Richard Carapaz (EF) come to mind, grand tour contenders but looking for a result here.Pavel Sivakov is the local but bound to be on team duties for UAE although could this include going up the road. Indeed he could help set up a 14th stage win for Tadej Pogaar but Adam Yates has a chance as he can ride away, get a bonus win and haunt Visma who seem to be chasing him like hes close on GC to their leader. Its hard to see Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) getting the advantage but its possible if he has a better day and the heat and distance made his rival fade.Pogaar, Carapaz, VingegaardBardet, S Yates, A Yates, Buitrago, Healy, Hindley, Mas, BuitragoWeather: heating up, 30C in the valleys.TV: KM0 is at 12.05pm CEST and the finish is forecast for 5.40pm CEST. Tune in for the start to see how many riders are ejected on the Peyresourde and to see how long it takes for the breakaway to form.Postcard from Saint-GironsThe Tour heads east into the Arige. How many mountain passes are there on todays stage? A glance at the profile shows the Col de Peyresourde, the Col de Ment, the Col de Portet dAspet, the Col dAgnes and the Port de Lers, the latter has no mountains points but port is a local dialect for a mountain pass. So five right?We wouldnt be exploring the topic if it was so simple. There are ten passes today: the Peyresourde, Ment, Clin, Couret, Portet dAspet, Latrape, Agnes, Lers, Pas de Portet and the Pas de Rolland. However this isnt because the Tour de France is hiding secret mountain passes to confound the riders. Instead its just that while going up or down the flank of a mountain its not uncommon for the road to go via other passes along the way.However it is notable how the Tour de France imposes its psychogeography. The races cartography is selective. The profile above accurately displays the elevation of the route but excludes the terrain around it, we see the Plateau de Beille as the peak of the todays stage when its dwarfed by the surrounding mountains of course.Stage profiles are quick to list almost every village going, like Argein and its 192 people, or Niaux which is home to 153 but other features miss out, whether mountain passes or more. It seems to be written with mayors and other local politicians in mind; no wonder as they are among the clients of the Tour.There are no road names. The feed zones are not mentioned to discourage souvenir-seeking crowds from getting in the way. The Port de Lers is mapped but downgraded because it has no mountains points on offer despite being 3.5km at 6.5%, not big for the day but there are other climbs in the race that are shorter and not as steep which get third category status.It doesnt happen today but during the race the mountains point might be placed at a different point to the actual mountain pass and its common for the race to have a marked climb named with the formula of {Cte de [nearest village name]} when often the place in question has its own name; Tuesday has the Cte de Fambetou but this is actually the Col de Fambetou to locals and on everyone elses maps. In short ASO redraws the map France in subtle ways, the race route is not always the same as territory.The post Tour de France Stage 15 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.