Favorites stage 10 Tour de France 2025 | With eight climbs on Bastille Day, it’s a golden chance for French riders to shine

The stage starts Monday in Ennezat, where the riders will be faced with eight categorized climbs. The first looms up early: the Côte de Loubeyrat (4.1 km at 6.3%). After a short plateau, the riders descend toward Enval, only to begin climbing again right away.

The peloton then heads toward Durtol, where the intermediate sprint is on the schedule after 44.4 kilometers. From there, it’s time for a brutal triple threat: the Côte de La Baraque (4.8 km at 7.4%), Côte de Charade (5.1 km at 6.8%), and Côte de Berzet (3.4 km at 7.4%). All three are category 2 climbs, and the riders will be anything but comfortable.

With just over 50 kilometers to go, two more climbs come in quick succession: the Col de Guéry (3.4 km at 6.7%) and the Col de la Croix Morand (3.4 km at 5.7%), after which we head for a descent toward Murol.

From that point on, untwist your knickers, because the true finale begins. With 30 kilometers remaining, the road already starts climbing steeply before the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert appears (5.1 km at 6.4%). The riders will then immediately descend toward Mont-Dore, where the final climb begins. At 3.3 kilometers with an average gradient of 8%, it’s a tough way to finish, especially with 4,500 meters of elevation gain already in the legs. The final ascent is fairly consistent, with gradients staying between 6% and 8% all the way up.

Times
Start: 1:10 PM (local time) | 7:10 AM (EST)
Finish: 5:25 PM (local time) | 11:25 AM (EST)

Good weather is once again expected in France on Monday. In the start town of Ennezat, the mercury will climb to around 28 degrees Celsius, with plenty of clouds preventing extreme heat. Winds will be light from the west.

One more full-gas effort before the rest day? That certainly seems to be the plan for Tadej Pogacar and UAE Emirates-XRG. The world champion has already won twice in this Tour de France and will be aiming to complete his hat trick on Monday. His closest rival, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), will need to be right there with him, though the Dutch team also has Matteo Jorgenson in reserve, currently sitting sixth in the GC.

Among the other GC contenders, keep an eye on number two Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), number three Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), number seven Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), number eight Florian Lipowitz, number nine Primoz Roglic (both Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and number ten Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek). The latter will be hoping to make up for time lost in stage six due to an unfortunate flat tire.

Outside the top ten, there are riders now trailing Pogacar by a wider margin, names like Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Enric Mas (Movistar), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers). If the big favorites end up watching each other, these riders might just be able to take advantage.

Normally, Monday would be a rest day, but due to Quatorze Juillet, that’s not the case this year. On France’s national holiday, plenty of home riders will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Warren Barguil, the last Frenchman to win a Tour stage on July 14th, back in 2017. The Picnic PostNL rider is back again this year. Can he repeat his own history?

When thinking of French attackers, Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) is one of the first names that comes to mind. This terrain should also suit Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana), and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious). Groupama-FDJ is fielding three potential threats in Valentin Madouas, Romain Grégoire, and Guillaume Martin, all capable of getting into the right breakaway.

Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) is always a name to watch in the break, especially after his win on Thursday. The pink team could also play the Neilson Powless card. Tudor, besides Alaphilippe, has Marc Hirschi as a second option, while the likes of Michael Storer (Tudor), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Dylan Teuns (Cofidis), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), and the ever-aggressive Michael Woods (Israel Premier-Tech) add to a long list of potential attackers.

Top favorites:Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Outsiders: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor)