Ligue 2 BKT

The breakaway arrives at the foot of the Col du Noyer (7.2km at 8.5%) with a decent gap of 1’24” on the peloton, which is being driven along by Nils Politt of UAE but with Remco Evenepoel’s Red Bull train tucked in just behind. Big day for the Belgian…

The Dane has got into the break in a bid to being able to pick up some green jersey points in the intermediate sprint, which comes after 89km today and after the long, rolling plateau that follows the Col du Noyer.

Pedersen will struggle to hold on if things kick off on the climb, but he’s there with three Lidl-Trek team-mates, which will be a help.

He won the intermediate sprint yesterday to move 32 points clear of his nearest challenger, Jasper Philipsen. But this could be biting off more than he can chew.

Adam Yates is here for UAE, which bodes well for Pogacar. There are four Visma riders in Armirail, Jorgenson, Kuss and Piganzoli, ditto Lidl-Trek who have Gee-West, Pedersen, Simmons and Vacek, ditto EF who have Carapaz, Baudin, Healy and Quinn. Netcompany INEOS have Arensman, Foss and Tarling, while Paul Seixas has two Decathlon satellite riders in Benoot and Riccitello.

The Johannessen brothers are here for Uno-X, while Jayco have O’Connot, Engelhardt and Matthews. Movistar have four riders in Castrillo, Romo, Rubio and Garcia Pierna, while Martinez is with his Bahrain team-mate Tiberi.

The gap is still around 1’10” as they approach the start of the next climb, the Col du Noyer.

Just before the summit there was another split and over 40 riders went clear of the yellow jersey group. In this move we have the Frenchman Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, who is 12’50” down on Pogacar in the standings. Martinez and Carapaz are the only top 10 riders who made it into this break, so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

The gap quickly grows to one minute.

And, finally, Valentin Paret-Peintre actually leads the KOM standings! The Frenchman has been in the polka dot jersey for a while now since taking over from Jonas Vingegaard. Yesterday he came within one point of Tadej Pogacar’s KOM lead – but he’s just outkicked Richard Carapaz to pocket 5pts over the Bayard, so he now has a four-point cushion on the Slovenian.

There are 40pts up for grabs today, with 20pts for the stage winner. So even if Paret-Peintre goes over the first three climbs in the lead, he could still end up behind Pogacar this evening.

Still, every little helps – and that’s a bright start for the Soudal Quick-Step rider.