The brutal effort in the Pyrenees mountains was all about strength and stamina. It was a painful experience offering no respite after 12 grueling stages of racing.

Tour de France riders have applauded for a minute before the 12th stage in memory of Samuele Privitera, the 19-year-old Italian who died after a crash while racing in Italy.

After yesterday’s brutal Pyrenean test the Tour de France gets even tougher, with the riders set to tackle a short but definitely not sweet mountainous time trial.Stage 13 is only 10.9km long but hits gradients of 16% as the riders climb steadily from a flatter opening section in Loudenvielle all the way up to the altiport at Peyragudes in the Pyrenees.

Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen won an incident-packed stage 11 at the Tour de France on Wednesday, outsprinting Mauro Schmid in Toulouse. Behind them, race favorite Tadej Pogačar crashed in the final minutes, but did not lose any time to his general classification rivals after they sportingly waited until he rejoined them.

The Tour de France has reached Toulouse and the riders have definitely earned their first rest day with ferocious pace as we near the halfway point of the three-week race.

Route map, profile and start time on blockbuster day of climbing as race enters Pyrenees - After an opening week of skirmishes expect battle to seriously commence among the GC contenders today as the