photo credits @ASO
Carlos Rodriguez capitalized on the rivalry between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar to catch and dispatch both riders along the descent of col de Joux-Plane to become the youngest-ever Spaniard to win a stage of the Tour de France at just 22.
MEINTJES, CHAVES AND BARDET ABANDON
The start proper of stage 14 was given to 165 riders at 13.23. The race was put on halt for half an hour after 6.5km due to a massive crash that forced Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) to withdraw from the Tour de France. A second start was given at 14.01. Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) pulled out in pain at km 15 while the first significant breakaway took shape with Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ) being joined by Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) and later by Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana). Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) and James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) crashed out in the downhill of col de Saxel at km 25.
2 CAT. 1 KOM FOR CICCONE
After numerous attacks, counter-attacks and riders being dropped, a breakaway group of 21 riders finally came to form, with the likes of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) featuring prominently.
Ciccone outsprinted polka dot jersey wearer Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Alaphilippe and Pinot on the climb of the col de Cou, while the Italian also crested col du Feu first, late forging on alone on the descent until Pinot, Landa, Alex Aranburu (Movistar) Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) came across. Pinot, Landa, Poels, Martin, Martinez, Ciccone, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Alex Aranburu and Gorka Izagirre, (Movistar), Hugo Houle and Woods (Israel-PremierTech) managed to stay away while Jumbo-Visma kept them on a leash.
Ciccone once again claimed the intermediate sprint on the col de Jambaz, while later riding away with Woods along the ascent of the col de la Ramaz.
Meanwhile, their former breakaway companions got reeled in 10km from the summit, while the yellow jersey group was down to about thirty riders including six from Jumbo-Visma and six from UAE Team Emirates. Ciccone eventually surrendered two kilometers further, as Van Aert crested col de la Ramaz in first position.
VINGEGAARD BEATS POGACAR ATOP JOUX-PLANE
Sixteen riders later reunited at the front with 30km to go, with the group containing Van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Felix Grossschartner, Rafal Majka, Adam Yates, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Yates, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen).
From there, TJumbo-Visma led the charge up to col de Joux-Plane, with Hindley getting dropped 5 km from the summit by a fierce pace being set by Kuss, followed by Adam Yates, Pogacar, Vingegaard and Rodriguez.
With 3.7km of climbing remaining, Pogacar attacked, opening up a slight gap of 4 seconds over his Danish rival.
However, Vingegaard made it across to collect an 8-second time bonus and the lead in the KOM competition atop col de Joux-Plane, while Rodriguez and Yates made the junction along the descent.
But, Rodriguez succeded in rising clear with 8km to go and remained out front till the end.
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