Stage 14 – 182km and 4,950m of vertical acquire. Brutal.
170 riders would take the beginning immediately however the identical quantity wouldn’t make it to the end in Superbagnères. With nearly 5000m of elevation acquire, 4 categorized climbs, on and off rain and misty situations this stage was all the time going to be troublesome.
Regardless of the difficulties there was nonetheless a lot of riders who needed to be within the break of the day and the tempo was on from kilomter zero. No teams might get various seconds lead although and for a lot of minutes it was solely the large inexperienced clad determine of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) who might create any kind of hole over the peloton.
Milan needed to get away, however not by himself and he finally sat up and waited for the peloton
With the excessive tempo and fixed attacking, it was not a day to be sick and struggling as Steff Cras – TotalEnergies (twenty ninth on GC) rapidly discovered and he was the primary to desert for the day. Shortly after, Mattias Skjelmose – Lidl-Trek (nineteenth on GC) got here down in a foul accident after colliding with some site visitors furnishings and he deserted the race a number of kilometers later.
It was now time for the intermediate dash after 70km and with the peloton nonetheless all collectively, Jonathan Milan took most factors forward of Mathieu Van der Poel and Biniam Girmay.
The well-known Col du Tourmalet was now in sight for the peloton and it was on the primary slopes of this 19km HC climb that the break of the day lastly fashioned. It was no shock that the break was full of climbers, that includes the likes of Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Sepp Kuss, Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), Thymen Arensman & Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep), Aleksander Vlasov (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin Deceuninck), Michael Storer (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Motels), Einer Rubio, Enric Mas, Pablo Castrillo & Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Sergio Higuita (XDS Astana), Jordan Jegat (Complete Energies) and Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech).
This group began pulling out a small hole over the quickly shrinking peloton who misplaced the most important title of the day – Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Fast-Step).
After two powerful days within the Pyrenees the third day was an excessive amount of for Remco
Remco was having a horrible day and he tried to maintain the peloton in sight for a couple of minutes however after some time he couldn’t even comply with the wheel of his teammate Pascal Eenkhoorn and shortly made the troublesome resolution to desert the race.
In the meantime upfront Lenny Martinez was on an important day and he left behind the breakaway and headed to the summit of the Tourmalet solo to take most factors within the KOM competitors.
French favourite Martinez was to have a giant day trip entrance immediately
Behind Martinez the break was splitting up and it was Sepp Kuss and Valentin Paret-Peintre who bridged as much as Martinez and we now had a trio of leaders 2 minutes forward of the Ineos & Movistar led remainder of the break with the UAE led peloton an extra 3 minutes behind.
Kuss on the assault!
Simply earlier than the second final climb of the day the break caught up with the trio of leaders and the peloton was catching up quick too. It was to be an actual battle between the GC favorites Pogacar & Vingergaard and the riders from the break for the stage victory.
Discreet all day within the break, Thymen Arensman (Ineos) made his transfer on the Col de Peyresourde with 36km remaining within the stage and he rapidly had a minute’s lead over his fellow escapees however simply 3m30s over the peloton. Wouldn’t it be sufficient with the HC summit end in Superbagnères?
Alone within the lead and looking out robust
The ever shrinking peloton had been below the management of UAE and so they had been slowly carry down Arensman’s lead however Pogacar didn’t appear too within the stage victory. Felix Gall (Decathlon) was although and he took off solo in chase of Arensman however he might solely carry the hole all the way down to 2 minutes with 4km remaining.
It was at this second that Vingegaard attacked and solely Pogacar and briefly Lipowitz might comply with. They quickly caught Gall who would then be dropped when Pogacar after which Vingegaard attacked once more. The highest 2 on GC couldn’t be separated although and Arensman was in a position to hold on to his slim lead all the best way to the road to take a wonderful stage win for the Ineos staff.
A properly deserved victory
Pogacar then simply outsprinted Vingegaard for 2nd place simply over a minute behind earlier than the remainder of the sector got here residence in ones and twos. With Remco now out of the Tour the rostrum race is broad open and for the second it’s RedBull’s Lipowitz in prime place however Oscar Onley continues to be threatening.
Tomorrow’s stage is a better experience to Carcassonne earlier than the mammoth stage as much as Mont Ventoux on Tuesday the place something might occur.
Tomorrow’s stage – one other for the breakaways?
Stage 14 Outcomes:
1 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers 4:53:35
2 Pogačar Tadej UAE Workforce Emirates – XRG @ 1:08
3 Vingegaard Jonas Workforce Visma | Lease a Bike @ 1:12
4 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Workforce @ 1:19
5 Lipowitz Florian Pink Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 1:25
6 Onley Oscar Workforce Picnic PostNL @ 2:09
7 Healy Ben EF Training – EasyPost @ 2:46
8 Roglič Primož Pink Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
9 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 2:59
10 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Motels @ 3:08
GC After Stage 14:
1 Pogačar Tadej UAE Workforce Emirates – XRG 50:40:28
2 Vingegaard Jonas Workforce Visma | Lease a Bike @ 4:13
3 Lipowitz Florian Pink Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 7:53
4 Onley Oscar Workforce Picnic PostNL @ 9:18
5 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Motels @ 10:21
6 Roglič Primož Pink Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 10:34
7 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Workforce @ 12:00
8 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 12:33
9 Healy Ben EF Training – EasyPost @ 18:41
10 Rodríguez Carlos INEOS Grenadiers @ 22:57
11 Jegat Jordan Workforce TotalEnergies @ 24:18
12 O’Connor Ben Workforce Jayco AlUla @ 30:15
13 Narváez Jhonatan UAE Workforce Emirates – XRG @ 31:55
14 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers @ 42:56
15 Yates Simon Workforce Visma | Lease a Bike @ 45:49
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