Stuttgart Women's Doubles -

His work done, the Frenchman drops like a stone as the break take on hairpin #21. Behind, it’s Mads Pedersen in green who leads the yellow jersey group onto the climb – they’re 3’15” down.

Bruno Armirail leads the break onto the final climb to Alpe d’Huez, which is 13.8km at 8.1% and plays out over 21 hairpin bends. They have 3’25” on the yellow jersey group. Armirail continues setting the hefty tempo with Foss – the duo working for their respective team-mates Kuss and Arensman.

Bruno Armirail is burying himself for his Visma team-mate Sepp Kuss on the valley road towards Bourg d’Oisans ahead of the final climb. Mattia Cattaneo is here for Red Bull along with American champion Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek and yesterday’s winner Richard Carapaz of EF.

Decathlon and Netcompany have two riders each in Matthew Riccitello and Tiejs Benoot, and Thymen Arensman and Tobias Foss. Movistar also have two in Javier Romo and Einer Rubio. The final four are Harold Tejada of Astana, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain, Clement Afonso Braz of Groupama and Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X.

The GC group of around 11 riders has just gone over the top of the Ornon with a 3’45” deficit. It’s hard to know whether the breakaway will hold on or not. They are a strong uphill fighting force, but the attacks have not yet come from behind.

Evenepoel still has two Red Bull team-mates, plus a man up the road, so he’s in a good position. Decathlon has Aurelien Paret-Peintre with him and two up the road, so Paul Seixas has bodies with him, too.

Pogacar is down to just Grossschartner and Del Toro, while Ayuso and Skjelmose are about to have Pedersen and Vacek as well as Gee-West after they sit up on the descent.

Yesterday’s stage winner leads the break over the top of the Col d’Ornon to pocket another five KOM points. That puts him just five points behind Valentin Paret-Peintre, who has been caught and passed by the yellow jersey group after his earlier starring role in the break.

The virtual KOM standings are:

1 Valentin Paret-Peintre 84pts
2. Richard Carapaz 79pts
3. Tadej Pogacar 70pts

There are 20pts up for grabs on the final climb to Alpe d’Huez.