Tadej Pogacar crushes Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel on Stage 14 to extend lead in yellow at Tour de France
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Updated 13/07/2024 at 20:13 GMT+1
Any question marks about Tadej Pogacar have surely been dismissed after he produced a scintillating ride to take Stage 14 solo at the Tour de France, with Jonas Vingegaard a distant second. The day exploded into life on the final climb as UAE Team Emirates sent Adam Yates up the road to tee up a Pogacar attack, with the yellow jersey charging away as Vingegaard and Evenepoel struggled to respond.
Highlights: Pogacar tightens grip on Tour by gapping Vingegaard to win Stage 14
Video credit: TNT Sports
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) lit up Stage 14 at the Tour de France as he extended his lead in the yellow jersey with a devastating attack.
The Slovenian was supposedly on the ropes after losing a two-up sprint to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on Wednesday, but he delivered a stunning riposte as he left the Dane and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) behind with a searing attack on the final climb.
Pogacar stayed away to open up a 1'57" advantage over Vingegaard in the general classification, who climbed above Evenepoel on a day his title defence faded.
Pogacar admitted afterwards that his team hoped the stage would end in a sprint amongst the GC favourites so he could gain a handful of bonus seconds on Vingegaard and the rest of his rivals - but he ended up doing so much more.
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'Here we go!' – Pogacar leaves Vingegaard, Evenepoel behind on Stage 14
Video credit: TNT Sports
German Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) set a considerate tempo at the front of the peloton for almost 70 kilometres including the entire ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, before team-mate Marc Soler took over and slashed the gap to a breakaway that had been whittled down to five riders.
Ireland’s Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) proved the strongest in that lead group at the foot of the Pla d’Adet and initially appeared on course for the stage win, Pogacar quickly burning through his domestiques before sending Adam Yates to chase Healy.
For a tense few kilometres Pogacar seemed like he was allowing his team-mate a rare chance at a victory on the biggest stage, but soon the plan became clear when he stomped away from Vingegaard, Evenepoel and the rest of the GC group.
Pogacar quickly latched onto Yates and stalled for a moment as Vingegaard dropped the white jersey and appeared to be closing on the maillot jaune, but that soon passed when the Slovenian delivered his second devastating attack and never looked back.
His advantage ballooned to 39 seconds in only a few kilometres, while Vingegaard continued to press his advantage on Evenepoel and moved up into second place on the podium.
Ineos Grenadiers’ Carlos Rodriguez was best of the rest behind the top three but the reality is the Tour de France now looks like a two-horse race for a yellow jersey with one sleeve already filled by Pogacar.
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'I thought Cavendish was from another planet' – Pogacar says he never dreamed of winning at Tour
Video credit: TNT Sports
Another brutal Pyrenean summit finish follows on Sunday, and Vingegaard will ride it wearing the King of the Mountains jersey on loan from Pogacar as Jonas Abrahamsen’s stint in polka dots finally came to an end.
The Uno-X Mobility man missed out on the breakaway in a brutal opening third of the stage where the pace never dropped below 50km/h.
Abrahamsen earned the wrath of the peloton when he belatedly attacked after the front of the race had finally calmed down and Pogacar stopped for a nature break, while Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) did get into the break and extended his lead over Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the green jersey competition by a point.
It wasn't such a good day for Ineos' British contingent though.
Tom Pidcock was forced to abandon the race due to Covid just weeks before he chases mountain bike and road race gold at the Paris Olympics and Geraint Thomas was dropped on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet having started the stage despite testing positive for the virus.
However, the story was all about Pogacar once UAE Team Emirates hit the front, as he struck a hammer blow to Vingegaard’s momentum and yellow jersey defence.
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