Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France defence took a hit Sunday as his key teammate Joao Almeida threw in the towel two days after a nasty fall. Before the fall Almeida himself was also in contention for a spot on the podium,

Mattia Cattaneo, a key teammate of Tour de France contender Remco Evenepoel, has withdrawn from the race. The versatile Cattaneo, who rides for E

Tadej Pogacar may be concentrating intensely on winning his fourth Tour de France, but in the middle of Saturday's stage eight he was just as focused on how his partner Urska Zigart was performing in the Giro d'Italia Women.

Less than a week after the Tour de France began, world champion Tadej Pogacar secured a second stage win at the top of a challenging climb and and reclaimed the yellow jersey on Friday.

Portugal's Joao Almeida retires from the race during the ninth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 174.1 kilometres (108 miles) with start in Chinon and finish in Chateauroux, France, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP)

Pogacar was happy to cruise around the peloton and stay safe on stage eight and still leads the general classification by 54 seconds from Remco Evenepoel, with Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin a further 17 seconds down and Jonas Vingegaard 1:17 adrift of his big rival.

Instead, it was his Classics rival Pogacar who distanced him, with team UAE Emirates-XRG setting an infernal pace up the final slope to whittle the field down to a select group of climbers, including Remco Evenepoel, local boy Kevin Vauquelin, and Briton Oscar Onley, who ultimately finished third.

The biggest race of the year has started: the Tour de France. On Saturday, July 5, the peloton started from Lille, with the race set to conclude three weeks later with the (not so) traditional finish in the French capital,