“Legend”: Tributes paid to Dame Sarah Storey after 60-time major champion announces retirement; Big Pyrenees mountain stage in the Tour de France + more on the live blog

There’s only one place to start today’s live blog, with the news that Dame Sarah Storey, the most decorated Paralympian and British athlete of all time, has announced her retirement.

Storey started out as a swimmer, competing in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics age 14. She won two golds, three silvers and a bronze in those Games alone.

She retires with 60-major titles across swimming and cycling, including 14 (Fourteen!) Paralympic gold medals in cycling, and 32 rainbow jerseys on the track and road. She was also immensely successful in able-bodied competitions, winning six national titles on the track and winning rounds of the UCI Track World Cup in the team pursuit as part of TeamGB.

“I am so privileged to have spent 35 years as an international athlete. I genuinely pinch myself that my childhood dream of being an athlete for as long as I possibly could has led to nine Paralympic Games and opportunities across so many sporting events.”

There are not enough words in this blog entry to summarise Storey’s sporting  achievements, nor her move into the important world of active travel commissioning.

Already the tributes have started coming in:

 

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A post shared by Sarah Storey (@damesarahstorey)

“Congratulations and also THANK YOU for everything you’ve given sport; your mentorship, your leadership and your passion. Forever grateful for the part you paid in my career 💛 Welcome to the next adventures 🙌👏👑”, Olympic gold medallist wrote Joanna Rowsell wrote.

Fellow dual sport athlete Kadeena Cox wrote, “Congratulations on an amazing career @damesarahstorey a pleasure to have been on the team with you👏👏👏”

Dame Sarah Storey, Great Britain’s most-decorated Paralympian, has retired from international competition with immediate effect.

The 48-year-old cyclist, who is a 19-time Paralympic champion, told #BBCBreakfast about how she spoke to her family first about not competing at Los… pic.twitter.com/F2yAI5TYHJ

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) July 9, 2026

Olympic hockey gold medallist Kate Richardson-Walsh wrote, “Congratulations on all you have achieved in that chapter of your life. You’re already smashing it in the next chapter. You’re an incredible athlete and person. Proud to have shared the pool with you 😜 x”

Rugby star Ugo Monye kept it simple: “Legend ❤️” whilst gymnast Joe Fraser left a “🐐”

Feel free to share your favourite Storey memory in the comments. For me it was the Paris 2024 road race, her ninth Paralympics, outsprinting the home favourite Heidi Gauguin. Simply phenomenal…

A couple of days ago, the BBC published an article about e-bike insurance payouts that made some sweeping generalisations and had a small dose of misinformation. We weighed up tearing into it on the live blog but then realised a considered write-up of the criticism was probably more worthwhile. It turns out a leading MP agrees…

> “A false understanding of the law”: Labour MP demands BBC amends ‘e-bike injury payouts’ article that failed to mention £110m in claims all involved illegal bikes

Doing the rare thing of showing a top-12 just to illustrate the scale of timegaps we’re looking at here, utterly mad.

These are the GC gaps that could be seen at the end of three weeks, but it’s happened after one mountain day and a team time trial…

Meanwhile, Torstein Traeen still has 2km to go on today’s stage, he should come in around half an hour behind Pogacar. His stay in yellow has been much briefer than he would have wanted and expected, but to have carried on after that pretty bad crash is itself a fantastic achievement.

Was it ever in doubt? Tadej Pogacar wins stage 6 of the Tour de France and reclaims the yellow jersey. He beats Jonas Vingegaard, his great rival, by 2’39” after forcing the Dane to ride solo for 43km.

Behind, Isaac del Toro wins the sprint for third, bringing himself right up into the podium battle.

This Tour was designed deliberately to keep the overall race very close for as long as possible. We can say now that that challenge has failed. All attention for the overall, will surely turn to that final spot behind the greats…

TADEJ POGACAR IS ON ANOTHER PLANET 👽

The four-time Tour de France champion takes the yellow jersey after a dominant display in the Pyrenees, leaving his rivals in the dust 💥🟡 pic.twitter.com/wPZAWMKt1k

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 9, 2026

Hang on, the group behind are starting to work, and taking turns! That’s until Remco Evenepoel accelerates once again, and everyone races to get on his wheel, before when he turns no one comes through. It’s a vicious cycle, but they are just starting to bring the gap to Vingegaard down to 35 seconds. But that’s a side story, because Tadej Pogacar now leads the two-time Tour winner by 2’10”. He’s unmatched…

Tadej Pogacar looks completely calm, and now leads Jonas Vingegaard by 1’40”. A lack of cooperation between Lidl-Trek and Red Bull is hampering the group behind chasing the Dane, who has a 50 second advantage on the rest of the podium contenders.

Meanwhile, a sudden rain storm has arrived, the first one of the race I believe!

The yellow jersey, Torstein Træen tumbles on the Col du Tourmalet.😥

The Tour de France suffers a mishap, but is up and riding again, though he won’t be in the race lead come stage end.

🇫🇷 #TDF2026 | July 5-July 27 | Every Stage on SBS 📺 pic.twitter.com/JiBQXcD9kZ

— SBS Sport (@SBSSportau) July 9, 2026

The yellow jersey is down! Torstein Traeen seemed to clip his teammate’s wheel and misjudged a hairpin bend and went down in the middle of the road. After extensive treatment from the doctor, he gets back on his bike but seems ginger. Any hopes of a GC are washed away.

At the front of the race, Pogacar has 1’20 on Vingegaard, whose advantage over the group behind dropped to 25 seconds on the flat but has since increased back to 40 seconds. Remco Evenepoel has just attacked from the group to try and get a gap. 15km to go, and they’re all on the final climb.

French President at the Tour today…

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— the Inner Ring blog (@inrng.com) 9 July 2026 at 14:42

The gap between Pogacar and Vingegaard has grown to 50 seconds on this descent, whilst Vingegaard now has a minute on the other favourites, with Evenepoel and Ayuso’s group having caught Lipowitz, Seixas and Del Toro. The post-stage Red Bull debrief will be interesting.

Pogacar is now in the virtual yellow jersey, whilst Cian Uijtdebroeks has abandoned the race…

> Why do fans run alongside riders on mountains at the Tour de France?

It may not surprise you to know that, based on the below photo, Geraint Thomas doesn’t mind fans on the roadside…

The gap between Pogacar and Vingegaard is slowly growing. The motorbike had it at 7 seconds at one point but it’s now 20. Seixas, Lipowitz and Del Toro are together a minute behind with Evenepoel a further 15 seconds behind. 1.5km to the summit.

This is brutal, Evenepoel has Ayuso, Skjelmose and Lenny Martinez for company. Actually, Sepp Kuss has just joined that group.

The gradients are going up and so is the time gap, Pogacar is taking time on everyone. 30 seconds on Vingegaard as he summits the Tourmalet, 1’20” on Seixas, Lipowitz and Del Toro, 1’40” on Evenepoel et al. Utter domination, and we still have 38km remaining

Incidentally, Torstein Traeen is 5’30” behind already, I think he can say goodbye to yellow…

Here comes Adam Yates, and back goes Tobias Johannessen, I would write more but it’s over as Isaac del Toro takes over and launches a full-sprint leadout!

TERRIBLE TWOSOME 🔥 Tadej Pogačar and Isaac del Toro launch their attack on the Col du Tourmalet! pic.twitter.com/MxdrNRJCm5

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 9, 2026

5km from the summit they gap Vingegaard and Seixas before the Frenchman falls off the Dane’s wheel. My word…

Pogacar and Del Toro are now working together, distancing the rest of the race. Saying that Pogacar goes solo with 4km to go. 42km left, the 2-time world champion is strangling this race!

10 seconds to Vingegaard with Del Toro sitting on, Seixas 10 seconds behind, Lipowitz next.

Vingegaard still has Pogacar in sight though, and the gap is just closing slightly… what a race we have! Del Toro is dropping away

Felix Grossschartner’s last acts were to drop a Grand Tour winner and Britai’s biggest hope… thanks Felix.

Brandon Mcnulty has taken over, then it’ll be Adam Yates and Isaac del Toro, I’ve got a feeling we might see a move on the Tourmalet, still 8km left of the climb. Paul Seixas’ last domestiques have just dropped. The front group is barely 20-strong. The gap to yellow jersey Traeen is 1’25”, and keeps growing…

5km into the Tourmalet and Tim Wellens’ job is done. It’s now Felix Grossschartner in charge and riders are starting to suffer.

Thymen Arensman is dangling away, whilst Matteo Jorgenson is dropping away. That’ll be disappointing for Visma but maybe the American is paying for trying to get in the break earlier.

Now Torstein Traeen is dropping! Oh dear, 10km of the Tourmalet remain, 49km of the stage. Uno-X Mobility can afford to lose 7’53” to Pogacar and Vingegaard to stay in yellow. He’s got a teammate with him but this is looking like an extremely difficult task. Vingegaard only has Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli with him. Grossschartner keeps turning the screw…

Just after I finished typing, Nils Politt was done. Tim Wellens subsequently launched an acceleration so aggressive it stunned even his teammates. The Belgian has now settled into his rhythm.

Sean Quinn and Mathias Vacek, second and third at the start of the day have both been dropped, whilst we have our first proper battle in the mountains for the king of the mountains. Valentin Paret-Peintre attacked with a whopping 2.5km to go and dangled awkwardly ahead of the peloton. His compatriot Lenny Martinez subsequently set off in pursuit and despite Paret-Peintre’s best effort the pair were reunited 500m from the summit. That led to an awkward sprint between them where I think Martinez just edged it. Now the long descent to the foot of the Tourmalet begins!

Meanwhile, this photo has just been uploaded to ASO’s database capturing that rare thing – a smiling Ben O’Connor!

Should be said this photo was taken before the Aussie was caught and dropped by the peloton…

Is it a bad day or just bad positioning onto the bottom of the Col d’Aspin? Juan Ayuso found himself 20 seconds off the peloton as a host of riders dropped away, notably Cian Uijtdebroeks who has been struggling with a fever. Ayuso has multiple teammates though and has rejoined the back of the peloton but this looks very ominous with 76km remaining.

Ben O’Connor led onto the climb with 50 seconds over the UAE-led peloton, and the Aussie has ceded 10 seconds over the first third against Nils Politt, who’s already grimacing. Now we’ve hit the steeper gradients, the race has become much more controlled, and so far all to plan for UAE. We’re properly climbing!

Whilst we have a brief period of calm before the day’s high mountains begin, let’s look at some good news from Greater Manchester – or Lancashire for you anti-1972 reform dunderheads.

Three organisations have been awarded funding from Active Travel England’s Innovations Fund to go ahead with their projects to encourage more people to walk and cycle.

Walk Ride Greater Manchester has received £98,923 to set up, coordinate and scale walking and bike buses across Manchester and Trafford, helping primary school children make safe, active journeys to school. The funding pays for a dedicated coordinator to grow the network at scale. To be clear, this is to enable cyclists to cycle, not that weird cycle shuttle thing in London. Charity director Harry Gray welcomed the announcement: “Every child across Greater Manchester should have access to a safe active travel route to school, and walking and cycling buses are where that journey begins.”

Simply Cycling has been awarded £80,800 for “Ride Well, Work Well”, a project encouraging councils, community and health services to use cycling as an option for transport, health and employment barriers, particularly for people facing combined disadvantages. The funding enables free cycle confidence sessions to be made available and tailored to individual and community needs.

And finally, Mosa Innovations and Manchester Bikes won £78,000 to deliver a community-led cycle sharing link across Manchester and Trafford. The pilot lets visitors ride from Walkden railway station and RHS Bridgewater, closing the last-mile gap that  most people currently have to access  by car.

An evergreen headline, Pedersen and Campenaerts threw in the towel shortly after the intermediate sprint, then another group of a dozen or so riders got away, only for the start of the category-3 climb to Mauvezin taking the wind out of them.

Then Ben O’Connor attacked, and took Pinarello’s Xabier Asparren with him. The duo came over the climb alone but Asparren has now himself given up. We’re only 25km from the start of the Aspin and I’m inclined to say that any chance of a rider from a break winning today’s stage is quickly evaporating. 106km remaining, O’Connor has 20 seconds over a UAE-led peloton, the sprinters are already forming their gruppetto before the high mountains have even begun! A bonkers start to today’s stage.

(I forgot to initially add that, with the help of four teammates, Remco Evenepoel returned to the peloton after one of the worst-timed nature breaks you could imagine. Better than urinating while riding and splashing road.cc’s most rugged reporter, I suppose)

On the category-4 Côte de Loucrup, the duo up front measured their efforts whilst the attacks started behind, Campenaerts’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson launched an attack, which Ben Healy tried to latch on to.

The peloton split into several groups rather than a break getting away, whilst Remco Evenepoel timed a very bad toilet break and is still making his way back to the peloton. He should be able to rejoin but talk about unnecessary stress! He’s 35 seconds off the back od the peloton.

Here comes the intermediate sprint, Mads Pedersen leads to take 25 points for his green jersey mission. The peloton sprint for 16, 14 and 12 points and they’re taken by Max Kanter, Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay respectively.

Couple of bits of housekeeping… Alex Baudin has to get in the breakaway today if he has any hope of holding on to the mountains jersey, and will likely have to summit either the Aspin or Tourmalet, but neither look likely. His closest rival for that competition so far, Caja Rural Alex Molenaar, has meanwhile withdrawn from the race with a broken hand after yesterday’s crash. One other DNF to bring you is Arvid de Kleijn. The Dutch sprinter has been toiling all race and was dropped on the first climb. Best wishes to him.

Blimey, Huub Artz has dropped away from the breakaway after some angry conversations with the race commissaire.

It seems as though it’s because of Artz’s position on the bike. To be specific, his hands were wrapped around the top of his drops, with his wrist appearing to rest on the handlebars. Apparently the inward position of his hands, which narrowed his shoulders, was the specific issue. He still has his brakes and gears firmly within his grasp, though a couple of fingers are loose.

“Ridiculous!” 😳

Adam Blythe was not impressed that Huub Artz received a warning for this position at the Tour de France 🤔 pic.twitter.com/RG7ciWok1i

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 9, 2026

That’s not enough for the commissaires, and after informing Campenaerts and Pedersen, Artz has returned to the peloton, looking really rather cross.

Just two up front then, the gap is 1’10”. Mauro Schmid is the latest to try and fail to get a move going…

Jan-Willem Van Schip’s legacy lives on…

UCI should be fined for damaging the image of the sport. #TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/OsOF6Y4ypG

— Benji Naesen (@BenjiNaesen) July 9, 2026

> Are e-bikes about to get safer and cheaper thanks to sodium-ion batteries? A Cambridge-based startup has come up with a salty new solution

Victor Campenaerts attacking from the flag drop isn’t unusual. Visma are quite fond of putting ‘satellite riders’ up the road to be useful later in the race. But it took a while for anyone to go with him. Huub Artz, 4th yesterday, eventually went. So too did green jersey wearer Mads Pedersen. His attack started a flurry of accelerations, but no one else has been able to break clear. Ben O’Connor tried, so too did a Netcompany-Ineos two-up attack with Filippo Ganna and Tobias Foss. But they didn’t work.

So we now have a leading trio with 1’20 on the peloton. On a high mountain stage like this, that’s very unusual, and you suspect none of the break are that happy about it. Campenaerts would surely prefer more riders so he doesn’t ride himself into the ground. Artz and Pedersen probably wanted more breakaway riders to deny the sprinters being able to limit their losses at the forthcoming intermediate sprint. There’s a category-4 climb coming up shortly before the intermediate sprint, could that be another spring board for a wave of attacks? That’s a good 20km away though, so we’re left with this status quo, very odd… NSN are riding at the front of the peloton. 160km remaining.

Let’s bring you a couple of mildly funny things whilst the riders are still on their neutralised roll-out. And, to be clear, the emphasis is on mildly…

Firstly Ryan’s received two messages in quick succession from the race’s press liason, the first warning him that the top of the mountain today is quite cold and to bring a jacket. Less than an hour later, and conditions have changed…

Secondly, Torstein Traeen’s yellow jersey sent Uno-X Mobility’s bike manufacturer Ridley into overdrive. They swiftly announced they would custom-paint a bike for him whilst he was in the yellow jersey. Not only that, but the bike would be painted by Ridley’s CEO Jochim Aerts…

It should be said that Aerts used to paint bikes, so this isn’t just an ego trip. Unfortunately though, although the frame has now been delivered from the Belgian factory to Pau, Traeen reportedly won’t be using it today, as he’s opted to use his lighter climbing bike instead.

Fingers crossed for all concerned that Traeen holds on, and that this publicity photo is not in vain…

If you fancy hearing some dulcet tones with your late-morning breakaway formation, Ryan’s sent us an audio dispatch from the race…

> Is Tadej Pogačar being unfairly criticised for simply trying to win the Tour de France?

Is this the day? When things fall into place? Torstein Traeen woke up this morning having presumably gone to bed, with even the whites in the cuddly lion’s eyes turning red.

Even yesterday’s sprint stage had some late drama as crashes split the peloton, though the GC favourites finished just about close enough to prevent any time gaps. Today will be a rather different affair, with the feared Col du Tourmalet only an hors d’oeuvre before a final climb to Gavarnie-Gedre. But Traeen has a seven minute advantage over the favourites of Pogacar and Vingegaard so barring the race exploding on the Tourmalet’s lower slopes, you’d have thought the Norwegian should more than hold on to yellow.

Here’s what Ryan wrote about today’s stage before the race began…

“This may be the only true Pyrenean test of the 2026 Tour, but due to the organisers’ ambitions for a suspenseful GC race, today’s stage has been watered down, in a bid to dissuade Pogačar ripping things up before we’ve even reached the first weekend.

“In fact, this stage has a whiff of the Giro about it, the Italian grand tour often following up a brute like the Mortirolo with a long drag to the line. The big tests here are still huge. The Aspin and Tourmalet are legends of the Tour, and don’t be shocked if UAE Team Emirates decide to light it up on the first HC climb of the race.

“However, the Tourmalet tops out with just under 40km to go, and is followed by an 18.7km drag to the line at Gavarnie-Gèdre which, in normal times, would have promised a small group sprint between some skinny climbers. It’s a climb easy and long enough to allow a strong team to snuff out a long-range attack – but whether that convinces Pogačar to wait for another day remains to be seen.

“Sofa score: 8/10. I say an 8, but we all know Tadej will try something, don’t we?”

People are good…

 

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I’m quite… relieved to know that Ryan’s work highlight of the year isn’t exclusive glamourous shoulder rubbing and lunch buffets…

> The day I got peed on at the Tour de France