Nielsen wins after protests force delay

MEGEVE (France) • The 10th stage of the Tour de France was yesterday halted for 10 minutes after half a dozen climate activists tried to stop riders on the road.

The activists, one of them wearing a T-shirt saying "We have 989 days left", sat on the road 36km from the finish in Megeve, before being pulled off the road by police.

Italy's Alberto Bettiol, who was leading at that time, rode through a cloud of pink from a flare before being asked by a race official to step down from his bike just before organisers said the stage had been stopped. Ten minutes later, race director Christian Prudhomme ordered racing to resume.

"Since the government doesn't care about the climate crisis, we need to take over the Tour de France to refocus attention on what matters for our survival," climate activists movement Derniere Renovation said in a statement.

"We need to make our government react as they lead us to the slaughterhouse."

The untimely pause allowed Denmark's Magnus Cort Nielsen to overtake his EF Education-EasyPost teammate Bettiol and win stage 10 - his second career stage victory - pipping Australia's Nicholas Schultz of Team BikeExchange-Jayco in a photo finish, with Spain's Luis Sanchez of Team Bahrain Victorious in third.

Two-time defending Tour champion Tadej Pogacar held on to the general classification leading yellow jersey (his lead cut to 11sec), despite losing another UAE Team Emirates teammate in New Zealand's George Bennett following a positive Covid-19 test just before the start of stage 10. He already lost Norway's Vegard Stake Laengen over the weekend and on the eve of the Tour, Italy's Matteo Trentin, another support rider, also pulled out of the race with the virus.

The Slovenian was, however, relieved that his teammate Rafal Majka was allowed to continue despite also testing positive. The Pole was said to have a low viral load, meaning he is not considered an infection risk, as was the case with Luxembourg's Bob Jungels of AG2R, who tested positive in Copenhagen but went on to win stage nine.

Pogacar's support has nevertheless been weakened with the Tour favourite having only five teammates left with 12 stages remaining. Today's 11th stage is a brutal 151.7-km mountain trek from Albertville to the Col du Granon.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

Stage 11: Singtel TV Ch116, 6pm