Ben Healy is the Tour’s first Irish yellow jersey since 1987

Michael Woods scrapped with Lenny Martinez in the King of the Mountains competition in Monday’s Bastille Day mountains scramble, but the story of Stage 10 was the bold racing of their breakmate Ben Healy producing the first Irish yellow jersey since Stephen Roche in 1987. Tadej Pogačar is 29 seconds in arrears of the EF Education-Easypost rider, who also took the day on Stage 6. Yet another escapee, Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates, won a hat trick of career Tour stages. Woods is now third in the KOM.

The GC Situation Going Into Monday

Kévin Vauquelin had the most to lose on Monday, his podium spot only six seconds from Jonas Vingegaard’s reach. Vingegaard’s American teammate Matteo Jorgenson was 23 seconds behind the Frenchman.

1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 33:17:32
2) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +0:54
3) Kévin Vauquelin (France/Arkea-B&B Hotels) +1:11
4) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:17
5) Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:34

The Course

If it weren’t for one sneaky little Cat. 3, Monday would be eight Cat. 2s over 165 km. The final two climbs were Col de la Croix Robert cresting at 10 km to go and then the 3.3-km, 7.7-percent clamber up Le Mont-Dore. Thirty-seven KOM points were on offer.

The first Cat. 2 was Côte de Loubeyrat. Riders attacked on the way to its foot. Nineteen riders including Woods got free on the ascent. Martinez took the maximum KOM points, putting him in second place in the classification. The Woods-Martinez gang grew on the long plateau.

There were 42 rolling kilometers before the second climb, Côte de La Baraque, and the escape’s gap stayed manageable. For fun Woods earned some points at the day’s intermediate sprint and a few KOM credits on La Baraque, where Martinez snagged the provisional polka dots from Tim Wellens.

The Côte de Charade saw Ben O’Connor fly the coop, drawing several others including Stage 6 winner Healy, Martinez and Woods. The KOM count was Martinez 17, Wellens and Woods 8. Close on Charade’s heels came Côte de Berzet: Martinez 22, Woods 11.

Col de Guéry came after Woods’ 19-strong gang worked over 37 km of rolling terrain. UAE Emirates toiled in the peloton but couldn’t prevent Healy from taking the yellow on the road with 67 km to race. A pair…