The three-time champion is up 4 minutes, 15 seconds over the Danish rider with five days to go; France’s Valentin Paret-Peintre wins the 16th stage.

1. Valentin Paret-Peintre, France, Soudal Quick-Step, 4:03:19. 2. Ben Healy, Ireland, EF Education-EasyPost, same time. 3. Santiago Buitrago, Colombia, Bahrain Victorious, 4:03:23. 4. Ilan van Wilder, Belgium, Soudal Quick-Step, 4:03:33.

Analysis of the 10th stage of the 2025 Tour de France, which took the peloton from Ennezat to Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy

After a long solo breakaway on Thursday, Irish rider Ben Healy won a hilly sixth stage of the Tour de France and Mathieu van der Poel took the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogačar by one second.

"His stage win was just brilliant, the way he attacked, going for it at 40 kilometres out, he just has that style of riding that makes it really exciting."

Healy was in the same main chase group as Pogačar after a fraught, hilly stage around the southern city of Toulouse when the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader was thrown off balance by another rider's manoeuvre, falling some four kilometres from the line.

Ben Healy gets a custom-painted Cannondale Lab71 Supersix Evo to commemorate his race lead in the 2025 Tour de France.

Though it doesn’t always hold sway, Tour de France tradition dictates that in the event of an unfortunate crash or mechanical problem, the peloton sits up and waits for the rider in the yellow jersey. But Pogačar wasn’t in yellow on Wednesday. Irish rider Ben Healy snagged the overall lead earlier in the week and had the jersey on his shoulders.