The two favorites for the final victory fought a daunting showdown in the Col de Joux Plane on Saturday, in vain.
Such is taken who thought he was taking. While Tadej Pogacar (UAE) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) went blow for blow in the Col de Joux Plane, Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Greandiers) popped up in their wheel and attacked on the final descent. The Spanish rider took advantage of the apathy of the two leaders, who were wary of each other, to fly to the finish line, Saturday July 15, in Morzine. Thanks to him, the Ineos Grenadiers team wins a second consecutive stage. In the bonus game, Jonas Vingegaard increases his lead in the general classification over Tadej Pogacar by one second and is ten seconds ahead of his Slovenian runner-up.
After a chaotic start to the day (the race was neutralized after a massive fall in the first kilometers), and seven retirements in the kilometers that followed, including that of Romain Bardet, this 14th stage of the Tour de France 2023 decided to switch in the legend of the Great Loop in the best possible way. And for good reason: neck and neck since leaving the Basque Country, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar fought an anthology battle in the Col de Joux Plane, under a scorching sun and in front of a large audience. So much so that it literally weighed on the race…
The bike that could change everything
In the final meters of the ascent, Tadej Pogacar saw his second attack on Jonas Vingegaard annihilated by a traffic jam of two motorcycles in front of him, strangled by the crowd, not restrained by barriers. Without that, the Slovenian might have taken the eight seconds of bonuses distributed at the top, finally falling into the bag of the Dane (five for Pogacar). A deserved reward, that said, for Jonas Vingegaard, first dropped by the Slovenian in the ascent, after a first bloody attack. But, as in the Puy de Dôme, Vingegaard limited the breakage, kept in touch. Except that, this time, the outgoing winner of the Tour managed to come back to the Slovenian before the summit.
It must be said that Jonas Vingegaard rather had an interest in not missing out. And for good reason: the yellow jersey had taken responsibility, from the start of the stage which left Annemasse, to padlock the race and bury the breakaway by driving his teammates all day. From then on, his intentions were clear: the Dane and the Jumbo Visma wanted to crush the Tour, on the slopes of Haute-Savoie. But they were surprised by the resistance of UAE around Tadej Pogacar, which confirms that the Slovenian can now count on a solid workforce. Which changes everything.
Faced with this observation, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar neutralized themselves, eased off, and let the pursuers, however quickly left behind, come back. This is how Carlos Rodriguez, a time relegated to more than a minute, was able to come back and surprise the two ogres, and deprive them of the feast on the line. In the descent from Joux Plane to Morzine, the Spaniard did not weaken, while Vingegaard applied himself to keeping the wheel of Pogacar.
Second in the stage, the Slovenian took back a few bonus seconds which did not prevent him from conceding one on Vingegaard, because of those distributed at the top of Joux Plane. Result: Tadej Pogacar is now ten seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard in the general classification. Waiting for the next battle.