Tadej Pogačar made a clear statement on the first summit finish of the 2024 Tour de France, using the strength of his UAE Team Emirates squad to distance his nearest rivals on the Pla d’Adet. After 14 stages, the Slovenian now leads the race by almost two minutes over Jonas Vingegaard whose high-mountain ability proved too much for Remco Evenepoel who slips to third overall.
- There was a fierce fight for the breakaway early in the stage, complicated by the mixed objectives of the attackers with an intermediate sprint positioned at the bottom of the Tourmalet. Once that was out of the way, green jersey Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, Arnaud De Lie and Bryan Coquard – who won the sprint to vault to third in the classification – were among those to ease off as a 19-strong group got started on the Col du Tourmalet.
- Mathieu van der Poel was among their number and able to stick around longer than most on a stage that did not suit him, but which paid tribute to his grandfather Raymond Poulidor, who won on the same finish 50 years ago.
- Their number was steadily whittled down by the biting gradients of the long HC climb, with the added disappointment of their gap being carefully controlled by UAE Team Emirates – chapeau, Nils Politt.
- There was, however, a decent haul of KOM points on offer at all three mountain tops. Oier Lazkano (Movistar) snatched the infamous Tourmalet off David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) in front of an enthusiastic crowd of Basque fans who’d hopped over the border to watch the Tour; the Frenchman would not be beat on the Hourquette d’Ancizan, though, making a cheeky chop through the corner to take a moral victory and … five points.
- By the foot of the final climb, only Gaudu, Lazkano, Ben Healy (EF Education-Easypost), Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) remained of the day’s move, but with the yellow jersey group just 1:20 behind them, hopes faded even further.
- Healy made a valiant effort to stay clear with repeated blows to his rivals, but UAE Team Emirates was on their way.
- Marc Soler had taken over from a stellar Nils Politt on the penultimate climb, and the Spanish climber continued to smash the pace until just inside the last 10 kilometres, giving way to João Almeida having brought the gap close to a minute.
- Then with Almeida still on the front and Healy about 50 seconds up the road, Adam Yates attacked about 7 km from the top of the Pla d’Adet. Jan Hirt (Soudal-QuickStep) thought about following, but a shake of the head from Mikel Landa cancelled him out, and ultimately it was up to Visma-Lease a Bike’s last-remaining domestique Matteo Jorgenson to set the pace.
- Yates ate greedily into Healy’s advantage but kept looking over his shoulder, biding his time for the inevitable move from behind …
- Pogačar attacked just inside the last 5 km. Vingegaard was the first to react, followed by Carlos Rodríguez, with Remco Evenepoel having to do some work to get around the young Spaniard and up to Vingegaard’s wheel, as Pogačar’s gap went from a few to several seconds, and kept growing.
- The yellow jersey joined his teammate within 200 metres, just as Yates caught a sagging Healy who was quickly dispatched as Yates accelerated with his leader now on his wheel.
- At first Vingegaard looking like he might make it up to the front – especially once he’d left Evenepoel behind – but the momentary respite of Yates’s wheel and multiple well-timed accelerations ensured that Pogačar would stay clear.
- He went solo 3.9 kilometres out and by the line, he’d taken 39 seconds out of second-place Vingegaard. It’s not all bad for the Dane, though, who was able to drop Evenepoel about 4 km from the finish and leapfrog from third to second overall.
Stage 14 top 10:
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GC top 10 after stage 14:
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Quote of the day
It was instinct we tried to go for the stage, but more for the sprint. Then it was this situation – Adam attacked and Visma had to try to maintain the gap, and I saw that if I bridged with a gap, he could pull me a little bit. This was really perfect and I must say a big, big thank you to all of the team today. They were amazing and this victory is for all my teammates. The plan was just to come to sprint to the final and make the sprint hard and maybe take some seconds and the stage win. But in the end, like this is much better.”
Pogačar said after the stage.
Late attacker Yates was also on hand to further explain his leader’s improvised move.
I was ready to do the pace like normal, and he told me to attack; I was like, ‘What are you on about?’ so I attacked and looked behind a couple of times to see where he was, and he came across. I couldn’t do too much for him because I was a little bit cooked from the effort, but in the end, it was a good day, and we took some time.”
Adam Yates said at the finish.
Brief analysis
- The day began under the looming shadow of Covid-19 and the other illnesses that are sweeping through the peloton. Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Guillaume Boivin (Israel-Premier Tech) both registered a DNS on stage 14, and the mid-stage abandons began early. Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep) was one of the many riders apparently struggling on despite having tested positive for Covid-19, and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Easypost) climbed off soon after. More and more teams are tightening their precautions against illnesses of all kinds with masks in particular reappearing wherever possible, even sported during flash interviews pre-stage.
- Amaury Capiot of Arkéa-B&B Hotels started the stage but evidently found the ‘pelvic trauma’ from his hard crash on stage 13 too much to bear – Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) was fined 1500 CHF and docked 60 UCI points for “improper conduct” in the finishing straight, his high-speed contact with Capiot causing a nasty crash that also took down Lotto Dstny’s sprinter Arnaud De Lie and Astana lead-out man Cees Bol. Capiot came off far worse of the lot, De Lie merely held up, while Bol finished stage 14 in last place, bruised but intact with teammates Davide Ballerini and Mark Cavendish all within the time limit.
- Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates didn’t have to do anything particularly bold today, but they had a chance to confirm their superiority and bring the focus back on their side after Vingegaard’s stage win drew the spotlight a few days ago. They were in control all day, and with numbers on their side when Yates attacked, Pogačar won the game of chess before he’d even reached the finish.
- Questions were raised immediately about the influence of motorbikes on the result. Pogačar, through no fault of his own, might have gained both in his own initial acceleration and once he left Yates behind. It was in this later instance that it was most obvious, the thronging fans pressing inwards and forcing the camera bike to ease off a little, but in so doing getting closer to the charging Pogačar. It’s nothing new – perhaps it’s even karma at work after Pogačar was famously delayed by motos when on the attack in last year’s Tour – but it’s an unfortunate mark on the stage and the race organisation.
Up next
Still in the Pyrenees, stage 15 takes the peloton from Loudenvielle to the second summit finish of the race on the Plateau de Beille, the gruelling hors-catégorie climb to the line lasting 15.7 km with an average of 7.8%. Before the race gets there, though, there are four more classified climbs, plus one sneaky 4.4-kilometre ramp after the penultimate climb of the Col d’Agnes. With a Cat.1 test straight out of the gate and over 5,000 metres of climbing in 197.7 kilometres, it’s another chance for a GC ambush or for Pogačar to further extend his lead before the final rest day.
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