Attention: Meteo France, from a cycling perspective, announces a downpour ready to strike the Tour. Don't worry, it's the usual Tadej, whose bellicose ambitions are widely reported by today's Gazzetta. It reads: "Tadej doesn't wait. Tour to be sealed" and again "The stage calls.

The yellow jersey warns: «We have a day ahead that suits me and the team. For the others it will be difficult». Don't say that Ciro Scognamiglio hadn't warned you. On a rest day or nearly so for other Italian general newspapers, Repubblica makes an exception, with its correspondent Cosimo Cito already on the roads of France. A full page, needless to say, dedicated to the man in yellow, even if through the warning of those within the peloton who see too much complacency towards the leader. Cosimo Cito opens with: «The Tour of the others has begun, those who aren't called Tadej and yet exist, fight, sweat, seek something. "Sometimes it seems to me that some riders are here just to have fun, not to win," the Frenchman Jordan Jegat, one of the free thinkers in the group, had told me this morning, "lately we're doing nothing to beat UAE, and that's a shame"».

In Switzerland, justified excitement for Schmid's performance «who has learned from past mistakes». And here we are across the Alps, more French than French: on the pages of L'Equipe. Alexandre Roos warns: «It was the day of the breakaway riders, yet it is destined to leave its mark on everyone in view of the two hardest stages of the Tour de France: tomorrow's at Plateau de Solaison and today's, a splendid route through the Vosges». And today we pass through there again.

GAZZETTA DELLO SPORT
POGACAR, THE WILD DESIRE
Turn the world upside down in three years. On July 18 and 19, 2023, Tadej Pogacar lived forty-eight nightmarish hours at the Tour de France: Jonas Vingegaard first annihilated him in the time trial (1'38" over 22 km), then towards Courchevel he gained another 5'45" while Pogi drifted away saying on the radio: "I'm dead". Four days later, Vingegaard first and the Slovenian second in Paris. Today's perspective has changed radically: the world champion hasn't lost at the Tour since the Dane. And he has always won every stage race he has entered: an "unreal" 8 out of 8. After yesterday's success by Mauro Schmid, today he faces the third of four weekends of racing with a clear advantage: 3'36" over his rival par excellence.(Ciro Scognamiglio)

REPUBBLICA
THE TOUR OF THE OTHERS BEGINS
«WE'RE DOING NOTHING TO BEAT POGACAR»
The Tour of the others has begun, those who aren't called Tadej and yet exist, fight, sweat, seek something. "Sometimes it seems to me that some riders are here just to have fun, not to win," the Frenchman Jordan Jegat, one of the free thinkers in the group, had told me this morning, "lately we're doing nothing to beat UAE, and that's a shame". Jegat promoted a massive breakaway of 57 riders, half the peloton launched against the other half, that of the star captains. It resulted in a crazy stage at almost 50 km/h average with the Ballon d'Alsace to climb in the middle. And yesterday Pogacar was just a spectator, the 57 did everything, then becoming 10 and finally 2, the Swiss Schmid and the Colombian Tejada, who went to fight for victory and finished in that order at the Belfort finish line. (Cosimo Cito)

L'EQUIPE
THE IRRECONCILABLES
It was the day of the breakaway riders, yet it is destined to leave its mark on everyone in view of the two hardest stages of the Tour de France: tomorrow's at Plateau de Solaison and today's, a splendid route through the Vosges. The course includes a stretch of the magnificent Route des Crêtes, of which we had already had a taste yesterday on the Ballon d'Alsace, with its scent of grass heated by the sun and pines.
There was an enormous crowd – including many fans of Florian Lipowitz who came from across the Rhine – a sea of faces on summer vacation along the road or relaxed next to their campers. Impossible not to think of the spectators from more than fifty years ago – their parents or grandparents – who found themselves at exactly that spot, on the same side of the mountain, to see Eddy Merckx pass by in command in 1969. (Alexandre Roos)