Tour de France race leader Tadej Pogacar timed his attack to perfection and rode solo to victory on stage 14 on Saturday, a 152 km ride from Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet including 4,000 metres of climbing in the Pyrenees.
The yellow jersey holder attacked 4.5 km from the finish after being led out by UAE Team Emirates teammate Adam Yates, leaving behind his closest rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel, who finished second and third, respectively.
Visma–Lease a Bike’s Vingegaard finished 39 seconds behind the Slovenian, while Belgium’s Evenepoel, who was second in the general classification before stage 14, finished 70 seconds behind, meaning he slips to third overall behind the Dane.
“It was instinct. We tried to go for the stage but more for the sprint. In this situation, Adam attacked and Visma had to try and maintain the gap,” said Pogacar after his 13th career stage victory on the Tour.
“I saw that if I bridged (the gap) to Adam then he could pull me a little bit and this was really perfect. I must say a big thank you to the team today, they were amazing and this victory is for all my teammates.
“The plan was to come to the final and make the sprint hard, maybe take some seconds and a stage win. But in the end, (winning) like this, it’s much better.”
The stage involved a brutal climb to the summit of the Col du Tourmalet.
By the time the breakaway group finished the second climb up the Hourquette d’Ancizan, Pogacar’s teammates had helped him close the gap to race leader Ben Healy.
Healy was out in front on his own and it was Yates who attacked with about 7 km left as the Briton looked to reel in the Irish rider.
As Healy began to lose steam and Yates was looking over his shoulder for Pogacar, the Slovenian picked up the pace, with Vingegaard and Evenepoel hot on his heels.
But Pogacar proved to be in a class of his own as he pulled up to Yates, past Healy and away up the mountain, eventually crossing the line on his own to extend his lead comfortably.
The 25-year-old now leads Vingegaard in the general classification by one minute and 57 seconds, while Evenepoel is two minutes and 22 seconds behind.
Earlier, INEOS Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock did not line up for the stage after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms but 2018 winner Geraint Thomas, who also tested positive for the coronavirus, opted to race.
It quickly became clear during the stage, however, that Thomas was not up to the task and the 38-year-old Briton was soon dropped by the yellow jersey group.
