Dom Joly spreads bizarre (and completely false) story claiming CyclingMikey has been banned from reporting phone-using drivers; "Froomey told him never to f*** with him or the team again": Luke Rowe on Froome vs Nibali; TdF S6 + more on the live blog

Let's finish the day with Dave Walker's latest cycling-related cartoon... 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Dave Walker | Cycling Cartoonist (@davewalkercartoons)

"Hang that one in the Louvre!" 🖼

Ben Healy launched his solo attack from 42km and reaps the rewards as he claims his first-ever Tour de France stage victory 🙌 pic.twitter.com/D8CPY5XDu8

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 10, 2025

This is basically going to be a continuation of the previous post lauding Ben Healy's remarkable ability to just ride a bike hard for ages. That might sound glaringly obvious, it's the Tour de France after all, but Healy has such an incredibly distinctive style that he again utilised to win today, landing the biggest victory of his career so far — a first Tour stage win.

Sit in the wheels? Save your energy for one late effort? Ride in a group to get close to finish? Nah, in Ben Healy's world you just chip off the front with 50km to go and gap some of the world's best riders. What about if the group chasing contains Mathieu van der Poel, Simon Yates, Quinn Simmons, Michael Storer, Eddie Dunbar and more? Still, just go off the front at 50km to go and ride harder. 

Simmons and Storer tried to drag him back, there was no lack of cohesion, but one Ben Healy is worth multiple top pro riders on lumpy breakaway days, it seems. An incredible rider, with an incredible style, who today landed that incredible win that EF Education-EasyPost have so craved at the Tour. For them it's been a lean(ish) few years at the Tour. There's been no shortage of ability to call on, Richard Carapaz, Neilson Powless and Healy going close numerous times since (and the Ecuadorian somewhat saving their Tour with a last-minute stage win last year) but  perhaps it would be fair to say the boys in pink haven't always got what they felt their efforts deserved. Today it all clicked.

Chapeau, Mr Healy, what a ride.

Mathieu van der Poel will be back in yellow tomorrow, the Dutchman clinging onto a one-second advantage from the breakaway, while Simmons bested Storer for second-place on the brutal final ramp to the finish line. There could well be a stage win for both of them later in the three weeks.

Talking of the brutal final ramp, by the time the GC favourites reached it the only question was whether Van der Poel would be in yellow, the climb and day's fatigue not quite sufficient to break up the favourites. Tadej Pogačar won the uphill sprint (obviously) but little change among the favourites. Some did lose seconds, Primož Roglič lost five, as did João Almeida, Carlos Rodriguez lost 15 seconds on the Pogačar group, while a late puncture saw Mattias Skjelmose drop 40 seconds, but nothing too major to report.

A bike lane in the 3rd arrondissement now has a tribute to cyclist Paul Varry, the rider who was killed by a motorist in October, the driver accused of his death having been charged with murder in the aftermath of the horrific incident.

Witnesses reported seeing the motorist deliberately drive over 27-year-old cyclist Mr Varry, crushing him to death, after the rider had banged on his Mercedes SUV when the driver had veered into an unprotected cycle lane, driving over the rider's foot.

> "We have reached the bottom": SUV driver charged with murder after cyclist’s road rage death leaves French cycling community "deeply shaken"

Now a tribute to Mr Varry has been placed at the corner of Rue Réaumur and Rue Vaucanson. The bike lane where it is found has officially been dedicated in his memory, a move which Le Monde reports received the "unanimous support of the Council of Paris".

"We are taking a strong, symbolic step that will remain in the history of Paris," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said during a service with Mr Varry's family and friends.

The lane "is both a tribute and a promise: a promise that his voice will not fall silent, that his fight will not be forgotten, and that his city will continue, with determination, to build a safer, fairer and more humane form of mobility," she added.

If you only heard that Lorena Wiebes had won the Giro's pan flat stage this lunchtime, you'd be pretty confident in guessing how the stage played out. Harmless break, easy day, sprint, win. Erm, not quite...

PROFESSIONAL WIN NUMBER 107! 🏆

Lorena Wiebes victorious on the circuit after the group of favourites went clear! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/YezLHTMS4e

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 10, 2025

Crosswinds blew the race to pieces, Wiebes's SD Worx-Protime team prominent and getting numerous riders in the front group. In the sprint, much of the stress and chaos was taken away by the reduced nature of the group, Wiebes beating Marianne Vos and Liane Lippert and helping herself to her second stage win of the week.

Maglia rosa Marlen Reusser was safely in the front group too, as were Elisa Longo Borghini, Anna van der Breggen and Katrine Aalerud. The big losers were yesterday's winner Sarah Gigante and Antonia Niedermaier, both shipping almost two minutes.

> Judge rules cyclist's lack of helmet "of no relevance" as taxi driver fined €1,000 for breaking rider's leg in roundabout crash – after police noted cyclist's dark clothes and earphones

 

 

 

 

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First up, the beauty. Remco Evenepoel. A man so aerodynamic he actually makes me want to tune in for TT day. Aesthetically delightful... 

Credit to Charly Lopez and Zac Williams for the spectacular shots.

Now, the beastliness... WARNING: IMAGE CONTAINS INCREDIBLY UGLY TT HELMETS, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

Have I woken up back in time in 2015? Team Sky racking up Grand Tours, David Cameron in power and a Brexit referendum a year away, Serena Williams winning her 21st major title at Wimbledon, the England football team looking ahead to Euro 2016 with Roy Hodgson where things surely can't get any worse than the World Cup in Brazil — they certainly won't have to worry about minnows like Iceland, for example?

To mark the chaotic first week of the world's biggest bike race, Luke Rowe has revisted a classic Tour beef in his new book 'Road Captain: My Life at the Heart of the Peloton', of which excerpts are being shared by Cyclingnews to mark and publicise the memoir's release.

One particularly punchy part concerns the 2015 Tour, when Froome confronted Nibali over the Italian's reaction to a crash on the stage to Le Havre. At the time, we saw the pair on the deck on the final climb, both unhurt and safe for GC losses, before Froome was pictured at the Astana bus. The following day, Nibali denied there was much in the confrontation, but Rowe has blown that up wildly with his account.

"There was a crash halfway up it, and Chris and Astana's Vincenzo Nibali, who was the defending Tour champion, both went down, as did Tony Martin, who broke his collarbone and couldn't start the next day," Rowe recalled.

"Ian Stannard and I had led the team into the climb and then dropped back, so I reached the riders on the floor a few seconds after this had happened. As Nibali stood up, he took his bottle out of its cage and launched it at Froomey before riding off, because Nibali thought he was to blame for bringing them down.

"There were photographers all around us taking pictures of Froomey and I said, 'Listen, mate, just take my bike and get to the finish.' He had no concerns in terms of time because the 3K rule meant he would be awarded the same time as the winner. I told him, 'Just get away from the riff raff.' I could see as I gave him my bike that he was fuming.

"I went to our bus and asked if Froomey was there. Once again I was told that he'd gone by without stopping, so I sprinted up to the Astana team bus, leant my bike against it and started to climb the stairs on to it. As I did so, Froomey was coming down them.

"'Are you all right?' I asked him. 'Yeah, all good. Let's go.' We made our way back to the Sky bus, and when we were on it I asked him what had happened. Froomey simply stated, 'He won't be fucking with me for a while'."

Rowe says Froome marched onto Nibali's bus, grabbed the defending Tour champion "by the scruff of the neck" and turned him towards the TV where footage of the crash was being replayed. 

"The footage of the crash was on TV, and Froomey said to him, 'Show me how I caused the crash,' although he wasn't quite as polite as that," Rowe continued. "Although Nibali had blamed him for the incident, you could see on TV that it wasn't Chris's fault. Nibali, meanwhile, went as white as a ghost and didn't know what to say. Froomey told him never to f**k with him or the team again, or words to that effect, and then stomped off the bus."

[Dave B and a French police officer enjoy a less dramatic day later in the Tour]

Rowe also claims that through friendly staff on the respective teams they heard that "Nibali was s******g himself after that encounter."

Although not s******g himself enough not to confidently attack on stage 19 just at the moment Froome was having a mechanical issue on the Col de la Croix de Fer, so maybe not that scared. Anyway, that was the second of Froome's four Tour wins, while Nibali finished eight minutes back in fifth.