Tour de France Stage Report: On the first day in the Pyrenees, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) strengthened his hold on the yellow jersey by attacking on the final climb of the Pla d’Adet to take time on all his adversaries. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) finished second at 39 seconds, but he passed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) on the overall.
Stage 14 finale
Tadej Pogačar won the first Pyrenean stage of the 2024 Tour de France. The Slovenian, who missed out on the stage win three days ago, rode away from his major competitors Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel on Pla d’Adet.
A job well done by Tadej Pogačar and his team
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France general director: “The dynamic format of the first Pyrenean stage is accentuated by the fact that battle is unlikely to commence until the riders have gone through Lourdes. From that point, with 80 kilometres remaining, there’ll be a festival of climbing, featuring the Col du Tourmalet, the Hourquette d’Ancizan and the climb to Pla d’Adet. Fifty years on, the finish line will be exactly where it was when Raymond Poulidor celebrated victory in the 1974 Tour.”
Stage 14 profile
On day fourteen the peloton will be back in the high mountains. The Pyrenees will rule the stage from Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan: The Pla d’Adet will see the action in the final part of the stage. The Tourmalet and the Hourquette d’Ancizan will deal the body-blows. The fourteenth stage starts with 70 flat kilometres, but from then on it will be torture for the non-climbers. The monstrous Col du Tourmalet (19km at 7.4%) is followed by the Hourquette d’Ancizan (8.2km at 5.1%), summited with 30 kilometres to go. There is no rest after the descent as the last 10.6 kilometres climb at nearly 8%. The Pla d’Adet (10.6km at 7.9%) has steep ramps of over 10% in the first 7 kilometres. The road flattens for a kilometre, but the final part of the climb is at nearly 9%. The GC battle should be full on.
A cloudy start for stage 14 in Pau
It didn’t take long for the attacks to start
Because of the flat start there were a lot of riders trying to get in the break of the day. Victor Campenaerts attacked from the start and had Mathieu van der Poel on his wheel. The rest of the peloton responded immediately and the Belgian and Dutchman were unable to open a gap. It took a while before a leading group emerged. A group with Campenaerts again, Frank van den Broek and David Gaudu took a lead, but this escape attempt was also canceled.
It was a big break of the day – How long would it last?
World champion, Van der Poel, Beullens, Vauquelin, Cort and De Lie
Several more attacks followed, but it was only when Mathieu van der Poel made another move that there was success. The World champion rode away with Arnaud De Lie, Cedric Beullens (Lotto Dstny) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis). They were later joined by another four riders: Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Kévin Vauquelin, Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost).
Philipsen and Girmay were looking for points at the intermediate sprint – Then sat up
USA champion, Sean Quinn Sean (EF Education-EasyPost) did a lot of work in the break
The eight reached the foot of the Col du Tourmalet together, but in the meantime a second group was on its way. This included Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay, who were still fighting for points for the green jersey in the intermediate sprint. Girmay was slightly faster and moved further up in the points ranking. The two sprinters dropped out, but some of the other counter-attackers joined the Van der Poel group.
The monster Col du Tourmalet
Some members of the original leading group had to pass, including De Lie, leaving 18 men at the front. In addition to Lazkano, Vauquelin, Pierna, Cort and Van der Poel, these were: Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), Ben Healy, Rui Costa and Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ), Marco Haller (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R), Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) and Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco AlUla).
Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) did a lot of work on the Tourmalet for the peloton
On the Tourmalet the leading group quickly thinned out, mainly due to the work of Sean Quinn, but Mathieu van der Poel wasn’t in trouble. He summited with the first group, just behind Oier Lazkano. The Spaniard had attacked just before the top and took the Souvenir Jacques Goddet. In the peloton, UAE Team Emirates controlled with first Tim Wellens and then Nils Politt. They ensured that the difference to the escapees, which had increased to 4 minutes, was reduced to 3:30 0n the climb.
Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) did a lot of work on the Tourmalet for the peloton
At the foot of the Hourquette d’Ancizan (8.2km at 5.1%), the 10 remaining leaders still had 3 minutes on the peloton. After 2 kilometres of climbing, Van der Poel had to let his fellow escapees go. He wasn’t the only one. At the top there were still 5 riders at the front: Healy, Meintjes, Kwiatkowski, Lazkano and Gaudu. The Frenchman was first, ahead of Lazkano. In the peloton, Marc Soler had taken care of most of the climb. The Spaniard had cut the difference to the escapees to just over 1 minute.
Quinn was on the front most of the way up the Tourmalet
On the Pla d’Adet, the final climb, the lead had increased slightly. This was not enough to compete for the stage victory, but Gaudu and Healy took the lead. It was the Irishman who turned out to have the best legs. He soon went solo and kept the gap to the favourites group stable for a long time. However, the pace behind was also very high due to UAE Team Emirates. First Soler was in the lead, then Sivakov and then Almeida, 4th overall. This was too fast for Wilco Kelderman.
Movistar’s Oier Lazkano jumped away over the Tourmalet
The peloton kept it stead up the Tourmalet, but was pulling in the break
At 7.5 kilometres from the summit Adam Yates attacked, 7th overall and teammate of yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar, jumped away. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma | Lease a Bike chased. Yates was able to pull away from the Pogačar-Vingegaard-Evenepoel group for 30 seconds. He was almost on Healy when Pogačar attacked 5 kilometres from the top. The yellow jersey immediately opened a gap on Vingegaard. Yates was waiting for him.
As you would expect, the fans were out
Yates towed Pogačar for a little. The UAE Emirates duo went past Healy, just like Vingegaard and Evenepoel did later. The difference between the two pairs remained small, but 4kilometres from the top Pogačar went on his own. Now the Slovenian started to move further away from Vingegaard. Three kilometres from the top he had 10 seconds on the Dane, towards the final kilometre the difference increased to more than 20 seconds.
UAE Team Emirates had the race under control
What was left of the break started the final climb – It was Ben Healy who went solo
In the final kilometre Pogačar pushed on and took some more time. At the finish Vingegaard lost 39 seconds. Remco Evenepoel, 3rd on the stage, came in at 1:10 and dropped to 3rd overall.
Pogačar had Yates up the road and jumped after him
Stage win and time in the bank for Tadej Pogačar
Stage winner and overall leader, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates): “The plan was to win the stage in the final sprint and try to get a few bonus seconds, but winning like this is way better! We found ourselves in an ideal scenario. Adam’s attack put me in a situation in which I could attack, following my instinct. It’s because of the excellent work of my teammates that I’ve done this, and I’m thankful to all of them. I’m super happy I’ve won. I’ve got one more Tour stage win now. Let’s keep this positive energy so we can win more. This Tour de France must be great to watch on TV. I was feeling really good today. Things were not going according to plan on the final climb, as we were missing one man – Juan [Ayuso] had to pull out from the race yesterday and so Joao [Almeida] was working very hard already with 8 km to go. I saw an opportunity that Adam Yates could attack and go for the stage win himself, relieving us from pulling in the Yellow Jersey group. Then, as I was feeling super good and nobody was trying anything GC-wise, I saw an opportunity to attack myself, bridge across and get a good gap for the GC as well as the stage win. I want to stress my thanks to Adam for his work today. The situation in the GC is definitely better now than it was before the stage, but you never know how things will end up. There is a long way to go until Nice. The real mountain stages just started today! The key is we have a strong team to support my options. In every interview they tell me that I have to save energy, but I love racing on instinct. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t… but I love it that way.”
Vingegaard lost time on the yellow jersey, but passed Evenepoel
Remco Evenepoel limited his losses
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Tour de France Stage 14 Result:
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 4:01:51
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:39
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 1:10
4. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:19
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 1:23
6. Santiago Buitrago Sanchez (Col) Bahrain Victorious
7. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates
8. Felix Gall (Aust) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale at 1:26
9. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:29
10. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 14:
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 56:42:39
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:57
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 2:22
4. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 6:01
5. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 6:09
6. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 7:17
7. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 8:32
8. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 9:09
9. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech at 9:33
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 10:35.
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