Tadej Pogačar Takes Stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France in the Pyrenees After Holding Off Chasing Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel

 

While Stage 12 and Stage 13 of the 2024 Tour de France set up perfectly for quick bunch sprint finishes, Stage 14 was the riders first day in the Pyrenees mountains, suiting climbers and the general classification. The 151.9 km long stage from Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d'Adet was relatively flat in the first half, followed by challengings climbs concentrated in the second half of the day. 

Early in the day, with 108 km to go to the finish, a breakaway composed of sprinters breakaway formed, including Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny), Cedric Beullens (Lotto-Dstny), and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis).

On the intermediate sprint, which sat 70.2 km into the day, Bryan Coquard crossed the line first for an additional 20 points in the points classification, followed by Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny). Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Wanty), three-time stage winner at the 2024 Tour de France through 13 stages, came through to capture 7 points, followed closely by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), winner of Stage 13 to receive 6 points in the points classification.

Under 69 km to go to the finish as the breakaway ascended the Col du Tourmalet, a grueling climb of 19 km at an average gradient of 7.4%, Christopher Juul-Jensen (Team Jayco AlUla) and Simon Geschke (Cofidis) were dropped and the breakaway whittled down to 10 riders, lead by Sean Quin (EF Education–EasyPost). The Col du Tourmalet has been the most used climb in the history of the Tour de France, with its inclusion in the 2024 edition being its 87th appearance. 

Oier Lazkano (Movistar) summited the Col du Tourmalet to capture 20 points in the King of the Mountains classification, followed by David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) to earn himself 15 points. Bruno Armirail (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale) arrived in third for 12 points, followed by Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché–Wanty)

With 34 km to go, there were only 6 left at the front with 5 km to the summit of the Hourquette d'Ancizan, which climbed 8.2 km at an average gradient of 5.1%. This group included Oier Lazkano, David Gaudu, Louis Meintjes, Ben Healy, Magnus Cort (EF Education - EasyPost) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers).

On the final climb, four riders remained in the breakaway group off the front. They held a 1:19 gap on the peloton at this time, led by Ben Healy. In the final 9 km to the summit, Ben Healy was soon off the front on his own, looking to grit his teeth on the climb and hold of the chase.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) put his attack in with 4.5 km to go to the finish at the summit, 22 seconds back from Ben Healy and 15 seconds back of Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) in second.

Under 4 km to the finish, Pogačar quickly caught both Healy and Yates, all but ending their chances of a breakaway stage victory. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike), winner of the last two editions of the Tour de France and third overall in the general classification to start the day, moved too, looking to chase down Pogačar.

2 km from the fiinish Pogačar held a 20 seconds gap on Vingegaard. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), second overall to start the stage and Best Young Rider, sat 30 seconds back of Pogačar and 20 seconds back of Vingegaard under 2 km.

At the end of the day, no one was able to match the ride of Pogačar, who proudly flexed his muscle as he crossed the line in first. Vingegaard pushes to the finish, arriving at the summit in second 38 seconds behind Pogačar. Remco Evenepoel was able to comfortably arrive in third, 1:08 behind Pogačar and 30 seconds behind Vingegaard

After his effort, Tadej Pogačar would retain the Maillot Jaune and cushion the time gap in the general classification. Jonas Vingegaard, for his work on the day, would move up from third to second in the overall standings. Remco Evenepoel would drop to third in the overall standings, but keep his place atop the Best Young Rider competition. Biniam Girmay will retain the Green Jersey as leader of the points classification and Pogačar will also keep his lead in the King of the Mountains competition.

Stage 15 will feature a massive from, covering 197.7 km from  Loudenvielle to Plateau de Beille and featuring 4,800 in elevetation gain.