Tour de France Stage 14: Pogačar Swats Away Vingegaard in Brutal Show of Mountain Authority

Tadej Pogačar swatted away Jonas Vingegaard’s late aggression and romped to his fourth stage-win of the Tour de France on Saturday.

Pogačar launched out of a small GC group near the summit of the final climb of stage 14 through the Vosges before he powered his way solo over the short plateau to the finish line.

The group splintered behind Pogačar’s powershow.

Vingegaard, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA-CGM), and Pogačar’s teammate Isaac del Toro led the chase behind the Slovenian.

Del Toro won the sprint for second, 38 seconds behind his teammate.

The 1-2 from UAE Emirates-XRG capped another stage where the $60 million superteam stamped authority over much of the race.

Nineteen-year-old Seixas finished third in the latest installment of his sensational Tour de France debut.

“This is a really perfect day,” Pogačar said at the finish. “We marked this stage since the beginning. I know this stage very well, it’s beautiful.”

Vingegaard loses crucial seconds in finishing kick

Vingegaard was gapped in the kick for the line Saturday and finished fourth, 44 seconds behind Pogačar.

This is the latest damaging blow for the Dane, who has been leaking time in every GC battle with his long-time rival since the day 1 TTT.

Worse still, Visma-Lease a Bike seemed intent on pressuring Pogačar through the final as Sepp Kuss and then Vingegaard pushed a searing pace through the final ascent.

Behind Vingegaard, the chase for third on GC tightened further as Del Toro and Seixas gained time over their rivals.

Only 46 seconds now separates Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in third and Del Toro in seventh.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) slid out of the top of GC after his stage 13 raid. The Brit struggled in the grueling multi-mountain stage in the Vosges and lost three minutes to the GC pack.

Pogačar leaves it late but leaves no prisoners

Pogačar’s winning attack Saturday came later than many might have expected.

UAE Emirates-XRG controlled the pace all day, but when Visma-Lease a Bike moved up in the final climb, Pogačar seemed to be struggling.

Turns out he was just waiting for his sidekick Del Toro.

“I knew that Isaac was maybe not 100 percent, so I was waiting for the last 2km to see if there was going to be any movement,” Pogačar said. “Decathlon and Jonas actually did a really hard pace on the climb. Guys were dropping one-by-one.

“But I felt good, so I said. ‘I’ll try the last two kilometers, I know them very well,'” Pogačar continued.

“I gave it a go. I had good feelings, so I grabbed it and took the opportunity.”

Pogačar’s victory on Saturday puts the GOAT on a career total of 125 wins. With 25 victories at the Tour de France, it’s not out of the question that the 27-year-old matches the record of 35 set by Mark Cavendish.

Into the Vosges

The Tour de France got a proper mountain stage on Saturday, finally.

Stage 14 to Le Markstein was the race’s first legit mountain test since stage 6 over the Tourmalet.

It was worth waiting for. The 155km stage was short but very spicy with four categorized climbs across 3,800 meters of low-altitude climbing.

This was also the closest the Tour has got to a mountaintop finish so far.

The final Cat.1 climb of the Col du Haag topped out just 5km from the finish before a rolling plateau to the line.

UAE goes 1-2 after Visma’s aggression backfires

Guess what? UAE Emirates-XRG controlled the peloton, all day long.

Pogačar’s pack of superdomestiques let a group of 37 get away on the first climb before they lined out at the front of the bunch.

The attack eventually split into a five-star fivesome of Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Tobias and Anders Johannessen (both Uno-X Mobility), and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).

But despite the climbing power in the break, it was inevitable the group couldn’t go all the way.

Insatiable Pogačar wanted stage win No. 25.

The peloton arrived into the final climb just one minute behind the attackers.

Intriguingly, it was Decathlon CMA-CGM and then Visma-Lease a Bike that lit up the final.

Seixas’ support men piled into the Col du Haag and blew the front group apart. Pidcock, Adam Yates (UAE), and Jai Hindley (Red Bull) were among the first key names to drop.

Visma moved up midway through the climb. “The Eagle of Durango” Kuss took a long pull before Vingegaard himself set the pace in the remants of the GC group.

Carapaz and Tobias Johannessen dug deep to survive the GC freight training blasting up the climb behind them. However, they were reeled in just 8km from the finish line.

Pogačar made his move just 2km from the summit. And as with every other of his attacks at this Tour, it was decisive. Pogačar gained 15 seconds over Vingegaard with his initial acceleration and piled on the advantage in the 6km plateau to the finish line.

Tour de France stage 14 results