Tour de France stage 19 LIVE: Latest updates as Pogacar marks Vingegaard on decisive route in the Alps

60km to go: Pogacar’s UAE Emirates are not turning the screw on the breakaway, not pushing hard to bring it back in, and that puts Visma in a tricky spot with two riders – Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Kelderman – up in the break. Do they stay there and go for the stage win, or drop back and try to help Vingegaard up the final climb?

The yellow-jersey group are still around three and a half minutes behind the front six, who are into the final 4km of this gruelling ascent.

65km to go: Back in the rapidly shrinking peloton, Pogacar is letting some of his UAE teammates take the lead – Nils Politt finally drops off the from the front after a hard 13km stint at the start of this big climb, and Marc Soler takes over. Pogacar is sitting on the wheel of Jonas Vingegaard, marking his main rival. The top 10 in the general classification are all still in this yellow-jersey group.

It is a topic that hasn’t come to prominence at this year’s Tour de France, but doping’s shadow always hangs over the sport.

Testing the riders is an immense operation in itself, as around 600 blood and urine samples are acollected during the 2024 Tour.

Here is a closer look at how it works:

Britain’s Oscar Onley is fading on this savage Cime de la Bonette (22.9km at 6.9%) climb, and so too are Prodhomme and Van Wilder. Matteo Jorgenson is the man on the front setting a hard pace and only six are left in the break now:

Richard Carapaz, Matteo Jorgenson, Wilco Kelderman, Jai Hindley, Cristian Rodriguez and Simon Yates.

The peloton is still four minutes back down the road – or what’s left of the peloton. This climb is tearing the main group to shreds.

A few images from the road so far:

Professional road cycling is a gruelling sport, and the Tour de France is arguably its toughest test, with riders contesting three weeks of high-octane racing.

78km to go: Here we go then, as the breakaway begin the middle climb of three today, the giant Cime de la Bonette (22.9km at 6.9%), the highest paved road in France at 2,802m. Those nine breakaway riders are:

Carapaz, Jorgenson, Kelderman, Van Wilder, Onley, Hindley, Rodriguez, Yates and Prodhomme. The peloton is four minutes back.

110km to go: Richard Carapaz is the first rider over the top of the Col de Vars, and he’s closely trailed by Jorgenson, Kelderman and Van Wilder, and then the rest of this nine-man break.

The peloton is 3 minutes back.

Spare a thought for the sprinters left in the peloton. There is no battle on the Champs-Elysees this year, nothing left to gain but the pride of finishing a Tour de France. It will be a long day at the back. Davide Ballerini currently carries the lanterne rouge, though his teammate Mark Cavendish is only one place and one minute ahead of him.

114km to go: The breakaway has been shaken up, with several riders falling back and a couple of new recruits burning to bridge over and join them.

Kelderman, Jorgenson, Prodhomme, Van Wilder, Hindley, Rodriguez and Onley have been joined by Richard Carapaz, which they won’t be delighted about – he has looked so strong on the high climbs. Simon Yates is also catching them.