Tour de France protests: Bradley Wiggins blasted for “imbeciles” and “great scenes” comments; ‘Teaching a child to punish a cyclist?’ Ashley Neal on driver; Pogačar’s teammates' Covid positives; Stuck team bus blocks TDF start + more on the live blog

Stage ten of the Tour de France, the first since the rest day and finishing after a shallow 20km climb to an Alpine altiport, could easily have turned into a snooze fest, with the peloton keeping one eye on bigger tests, including the fearsome Col du Galibier, Col du Granon, and Alpe d’Huez, in the days to come.

It was anything but, however, as the Tour descended into anarchy, both in a racing and non-racing sense. The day started with the news of three positive Covid tests, two of which saw Luke Durbridge and George Bennett sent home, while Bennett’s UAE Team Emirates colleague Rafał Majka was allowed to stay, due, apparently, to the low chances of the Polish climber infecting others with the virus.

Perhaps the rest of the peloton were doing their best to avoid coming into contact with Majka, such was the ferocity of the opening hour of today’s stage to Megève.

Once a strong 25 rider group went clear, the peloton did eventually down tools – and then so did everyone, as a group of climate change protesters did what they set out to do: disrupt the race and focus the world’s attention on the state of the planet.

After the race got back up and running, and Tour-winning foots were removed from mouths, all hell broke loose in the break. The climb to the altiport in Megève is long and shallow – far removed from the gradients the riders will face tomorrow and Thursday – and thus allowed for a far more open, attacking contest with a broader range of potential winners.

Image: A.S.O., Pauline Ballet

With EF Education-EasyPost’s Alberto Bettiol – who showcased some impressive bike handling skills to avoid the demonstrators posing as road furniture – up the road on his own, Bahrain Victorious went to work. First, the impressive British classics rider Fred Wright powered a three-rider group across to the Italian; after some toing and froing, his teammate Luis León Sánchez attacked.

Behind the veteran Spaniard, Wright expertly patrolled attacks from Magnus Cort and the twitchy Lennard Kämna, who at one point looked likely to pull on the yellow jersey, such was the gap to the cruising peloton (a fact that may have played into the German’s uncharacteristic lack of assertion or confidence in a break that was watching his every move).

Finally, attacks from Movistar’s American hope Matteo Jorgenson and Nick Schultz (BikeExhange-Jayco) ultimately did for Wright. The duo, and then Dylan van Baarle, caught the fading Sanchez, and looked set to sprint for the win.

However, that long, long seemingly endless drag on the altiport completely reshaped proceedings once again. While a ten-rider group coalesced in the final 500 metres, Sanchez and Schultz remained the strongest, and sprinted clear again towards the line.

So, crucially, did Cort. The Dane, who wore the King of the Mountains jersey for most of this Tour's opening week, finally proved it on top of a real mountain, overcoming Schultz in the dying metres to cap a wonderful first ten days for the enigmatic and popular 29-year-old.

Cort’s win also capped a rather dramatic day for his EF Education-EasyPost team. As well as Bettiol’s brief encounter with local activists (which resulted in the Italian giving a statement at a local police station after the stage), the American squad’s massive pink bus caused a traffic jam at the stage start in Morzine after getting stuck while making a tight turn, and then a bird relieved itself onto DS Tom Southam’s head.

Maybe that was just the luck they needed…

Image: A.S.O., Pauline Ballet

Almost nine minutes after Cort’s battling win, race leader Tadej Pogačar continued to do his best to avoid any need for luck, sprinting for any glimpse of daylight, his perpetual shadow Jonas Vingegaard mere bike lengths behind.

The peloton’s fast finish didn’t really change anything in the race for overall victory, but it did result in Kämna missing out on yellow by just 11 seconds. Ouch.

“At first we didn't want to lose it then we were going to lose it kind of, but in the end it all worked out like it did and I'm happy I'm still in the yellow jersey,” Pogačar said at the finish.

Simple really.

Things, however, will get more complicated tomorrow, as the peloton takes on the first truly epic mountain stage of the Tour, covering the legendary Col du Galibier (via the Col du Télégraphe) before finishing atop the 11.3km, 9.3 percent average Col du Granon, making its first appearance at the Tour since Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault went head-to-head in 1986.

On that day, the dominant Frenchman – aiming for his sixth Tour win – cracked, and his younger teammate, and rival, LeMond went into yellow.

Will history repeat itself tomorrow?

Main image: A.S.O., Pauline Ballet

After a frenetic start to stage ten of the Tour de France today, it’s all calmed down (for now anyway).

So, while a massive, Filippo Ganna-powered break increases their lead over an ambling peloton, we can turn our attention to the burning news story of the day: Where have G’s glasses gone?

The 2018 Tour winner was spotted in the pack NOT wearing his trademark white Oakley Racing Jackets.

It’s probably the first time we have seen the Welshman without his (rather divisive, if we’re being honest) specs since that time he lost them in the woods off the Col de Manse back in 2015.

Does G’s new look represent a latent sartorial change of heart, or did he simply leave his glasses on the hotel room table?

Considering he raced the opening time trial of the Tour de France while still wearing a gilet, you can never rule it out…

Here’s something to entertain/confuse/anger [delete as appropriate] you over lunch…

Apparently, the fuddy-duddies here at road.cc have decided to embrace the wonderful world of TikTok (we have to pretend we’re down with the kids somehow…), and have //www.tiktok.com/ [at] road.cc?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc" target="_blank">created a page featuring lots of sharply edited, quickfire vids on everything from snippets of our features and interviews to pro cycling newbie question and answer sessions.

And… this Tour de France-Minions film fan thing mash up, apparently.

//www.tiktok.com/ [at] road.cc/video/7119142910943071494" class="tiktok-embed" data-video-id="7119142910943071494" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;">

//www.tiktok.com/ [at] road.cc" target="_blank" title="@road.cc">@road.cc GentleMinions. Make it to @letourdefrance! #minions #tourdefrance #fyp #gentleminions #cyclinglife ♬ Universal Fanfare - The Minions

Don’t worry, even the clip’s star Liam tells me he didn’t really know what was going on either…

(The fact that the blog is struggling with all the TikTok links makes this even funnier. Hopefully they'll be sorted soon!)

Sadly our rider @georgenbennett tested positive for Covid-19 and will not continue today in the #TDF2022.

On Monday he was tested as per internal protocols of the team and returned a positive result. This was confirmed by a PCR test. pic.twitter.com/HCWDwWfgmD

— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) July 12, 2022

Just when you thought EF Education-EasyPost’s beleaguered bus would be the most dramatic Tour de France story this morning, UAE Team Emirates have confirmed that the squad’s Kiwi climber – and key mountain domestique for defending champion Tadej Pogačar – George Bennett has tested positive for Covid and has withdrawn from the race.

“Sadly our rider George Bennett tested positive for Covid-19 and will not continue today in the Tour de France,” the team said in a statement.

“On Monday he was tested as per internal protocols of the team and returned a positive result. This was confirmed by a PCR test.”

The team’s doctor Adrian Rotunno also confirmed that Bennett had displayed Covid-related symptoms on Monday night, which led to his test.

Bennett isn’t the only UAE Team Emirates rider to contract the virus over the rest day – Polish climber Rafał Majka has also reportedly tested positive for Covid, but has been deemed to have a low enough viral load to continue racing.

The news means that Pogačar now only has five teammates to reply upon (including Majka) for the rest of the Tour, after Vegard Stake Laengen pulled out earlier in the race following his own positive test for Covid.

Bennett and Stake Laengen’s positive tests would have resulted in an automatic withdrawal for the entire UAE Team Emirates squad, including Pogačar, under the UCI’s previous Covid regulations. However, the new guidelines, which were introduced just before the 2022 Tour began, will allow teams to continue even if two or more riders return a positive PCR test within seven days.

 Majka has also been spared an early exit thanks to the rewritten rules, which now state that the ability of a rider to continue racing after a positive test will be decided by a meeting between the team doctor, the Tour’s Covid-19 doctor and the UCI Medical Director.

The first nine days of this year’s Tour de France have worked out pretty well for Tom Pidcock.

The 22-year-old cyclocross world champion – the third youngest rider at this year’s Grande Boucle – is currently sitting an impressive seventh overall as the race resumes following its first proper race day, after expertly navigating the hazard-filled opening stages and putting in a string of consistent performances as the road has started to rear upwards.

The Yorkshireman, competing in only his second career grand tour after last year’s Vuelta a España, managed to cling on to the back of the lead group on Sunday’s mountainous stage to Châtel, losing seven seconds in the end to a fast-finishing Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, and only four to the likes of Primož Roglič, Romain Bardet and teammates Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas (in comparison, Ineos’ other potential GC hope, tried and trusted climber Dani Martínez, lost over 15 minutes).

Despite Martínez’ collapse, Pidcock still forms part of three-pronged Ineos attack including Yates and 2018 winner Thomas, all currently ensconced in the top seven on the GC, which will aim to deploy its strength in numbers to good effect against Pogačar’s one man show.

“I think it's been a pretty successful start," Pidcock told cyclingnews.

“I mean, yeah, I kind of have high expectations of myself and judge my performances on other people’s – like Wout [van Aert], for example, is a competitor across the Classics.

“But in reality, he's already done two Tours de France so I can't expect to be at the front straight away. I have time to learn and grow and get there. Not been as near a stage as I would have liked, but I can only do my best.

“But if I step back, I'm top 10 in GC, I've been up there in a few stages. It's not bad at all.”

When asked whether his team had any tricks up its sleeve for the upcoming stages in the Alps, starting with today’s pretty benign summit finish to the altiport in Megève before two brutal stages over the range’s classic climbs, Pidcock replied: “Well, it's a surprise. So, if I tell you I'll have to kill you.

“For me, I think the most you can learn is in the first week for a GC rider. Once you get past the first week then you're going to the mountains where everything is simpler and I can kind of learn the aspect whether I'm in GC or not. So yeah, now it's great. But after today, we'll evaluate to see if I should lose some time, and maybe go for some stages.”

Lead image:  Zac Williams/SWpix.com

I totally know enough ultradistance cyclists that we could set a record with this https://t.co/OPHZkDepbx

— Ian Walker (@ianwalker) July 11, 2022

I’ll meet you at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez… I wonder what the record is for a 12-seater beer bike up the famous 21 turns?

YouTube driving instructor Ashley Neal, as regular readers of road.cc will know, tends to divide opinion within the cycling community.

Neal, the son of European Cup-winning Liverpool full back Phil Neal (but don’t mention the football!), regularly posts videos on his website and YouTube channel, which has over 109,000 subscribers, chronicling his experiences as a driver and instructor in the northwest of England.

While he often been praised for his level-headed and even-handed approach to cyclists on the roads, earlier this year one of his videos, titled ‘Cycling 2 Abreast and Overtaking’, caused a stir after some viewers claimed that Neal was criticising the cyclists in the clip for riding two-abreast before “unnecessarily” beeping his horn at them as he passed.

> Footballer-turned-driving instructor Ashley Neal divides opinion with use of horn in overtaking video

In May, he criticised the confrontational approach to road safety adopted by Cycling Mikey, another live blog favourite (we just need Jeremy Vine to pop up and we’re good to go), which Neal argued actually leads to more road rage incidents.

In one of his latest YouTube videos Neal, who runs his own driving school business, slams a van driver who appears to deliberately swerve at a cyclist.

“Without doubt, this was done as a form of punishment,” he narrates in the clip, which was captured last week.

Neal then says that – though it’s difficult to tell for sure – he reckons that a young child may be sitting in the passenger seat of the van.

“Is that kid being taught that this is the correct way to deal with a vulnerable road user?” he continues. “I surely hope not.”

“And if that is the case, that there was a child in that passenger seat, I would just like to pose this question to the driver: ‘How would you feel if someone did that to your lad?’”

> “I wholeheartedly disagree with his approach” – YouTube driving instructor Ashley Neal on CyclingMikey

Neal’s subscribers agreed with his take on the incident, with one commenter describing the manoeuvre as “Threatening with a deadly weapon is what that is, and it should be charged and prosecuted as such.”

Another wrote: “This needs to be reported to the police, and the video sent to the company. Seriously. Accidents and mistakes are one thing... this is quite another. Even if the van didn't make contact, it could have caused the cyclist to clip a kerb or drain and end up under the wheels of a following vehicle... or maybe mount a kerb and hit a pedestrian.

“Doesn't even matter if there's been an altercation or words exchanged further back... maybe a close pass resulted in the cyclist banging on the side of the van.

“Doesn't matter, there's no excuse for that.”

“The overall issue with a lot of society today,” one viewer summarised, “is that they're not taught ‘how would you like it if it happened to you?’ or of course ‘happened to your loved one/child/whomever’, so then you get silly twats like the van driver that think it's perfectly fine to behave like that.”

Another user noted the potential hand-me-down nature of anti-cycling attitudes.

They wrote: “I gave some friends of my daughters a lift to a birthday party the other day, and as we approached a cyclist one of them said ‘urgh, I HATE cyclists, run them over!’, to which my daughter replied ‘why? My Dad's a cyclist’.

“I told her that cyclists don’t hold cars up, I said even though we're driving slowly behind him waiting for a safe place to pass, we will catch the traffic up at the next junction and it will cost us no time. Then pointed out when we did!”