Only one man stood between Pogacar and a Pyrenean hattrick: stage 14 Domestique Debrief

Stage 14 featured four intimidating climbs, with not one but two being hors catégorie – one of which being the iconic Col du Tourmalet, the highest paved mountain pass in the French Pyrénées. Between the two HC climbs, the riders weren’t afforded much of a break, and were instead faced with a category 2 followed by a category 1 climb, just to really keep their legs hurting. Adding to this, the weather had changed significantly from the blazing heat of the past few days, having swung wildly in the opposite direction to replace glaring sunshine with wind and rain. So, whilst very different to the preceding days, the weather remained intense, as did the racing. 

One of the first things that became apparent in stage 14, was that despite the fact that Pogačar, hungry for as many stage wins as he can get, is creeping dangerously close to snatching up the green jersey and winning the points classification, Lidl-Trek are not going to give it up easily. Over the course of the race, Jonathan Milan has been raiding the intermediate sprints, and stage 14 made it clear that he isn’t finished. From the very beginning of the stage, Lidl-Trek rode on the front, with Quinn Simmons trying to kick things off as soon as the race was on, and even Milan himself launching a solo attack for around 10 kilometres before sitting up and allowing himself to get caught once he realised its futility. 

Lidl-Trek kept a steady presence at the front for the entire first part of the stage, and even when their GC leader, Mattias Skjelmose crashed with 129 kilometres to go, no riders were sent back to help him – clearly showing the team’s intent to go all-in for Milan. It appears as though this decision was the right one though, as Skjelmose unfortunately had to abandon the race a while later, and by the time the riders came up to the intermediate sprint, their lead-out train was ready to assemble and delivered Milan right to the line to take maximum points. 

With the number of sprint opportunities waning at this point in the race, and Milan having only taken one win so far, a targeted effort to collect as many points as possible may be his only chance of going home with the green jersey – but the way things have been going so far, it looks as though he has the tactics, the team and the tenacity to do it. 

In a sharp contrast to the situation in some of the earlier stages – where seemingly no one wanted to be in the breakaway – in stage 14 almost anyone and everyone seemed to want to be in front at some point, for various reasons, and so the riders up front were constantly chopping and changing. Amongst all this however, only one rider came out on top in the end, having joined the breakaway group at just the right time and having perfectly timed his solo attack to the finish: Thymen Arensman. 

Lidl-Trek’s efforts disturbed the breakaway formation for the majority of the early part of the stage, but this didn’t prevent a number of riders trying to animate attacks early-on, despite being chased down by Lidl-Trek, lurking at the front of the peloton, every time. Even once the intermediate sprint points had been claimed and Lidl-Trek had sat back, it still wasn’t much easier for riders to escape. There were multiple attacks on the first climb, but no one got away until a large group, including Arensman, formed with 109 kilometres to go. This group soon splintered into small groups however, with Arensman drifting back to the chasing group, and others dropping entirely, to be swallowed up by the peloton behind.

Arensman stayed consistent however, working with his group to slowly bring back the riders in front, and then patiently waited until the 37 kilometres to go mark to launch his attack. No one could follow him, and so he embarked on a long and lonely journey to the finish by himself, putting in an incredible performance to hold off the general classification riders behind. This shows once again that when he’s on, he’s on, and can be up there with the best.

As promised in an interview before the race began, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) is targeting the king of the mountains classification instead of the general classification in this year’s Tour de France. He has been putting in the work to do so over the past few stages, but this hasn’t been easy with Pogačar in such good climbing form, able to gobble up KOM points with ease as he glides to each victory. 

In stage 14, Martinez showed that he is not going to back down, however, and whilst keeping the jersey warm for Pogačar as the then leader of the classification, he continued in his attempt to take the jersey outright. He dropped all of the other breakaway riders inside the last 100 kilometres and quickly built up a gap of two minutes, which ensured that he came over the Tourmalet first and took maximum points, and had his moment basking in the delight of the roaring French crowd waiting for him. 

He then managed to maintain his lead over the next few climbs, taking maximum points again on the Col d’Aspin and 8 more on the Col de Peyresourde behind Arensman. This performance was enough for him to fend off Pogačar and retake the lead of the king of the mountains classification – even if just for another day. 

In less positive news, stage 14 confirmed what we all feared: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) is not in his best shape. His chances of challenging Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) in this year’s Tour were already in doubt after he suffered a horrible crash during the off-season that hindered his preparation and forced him to start his season much later than planned, and whilst he still enjoyed some success over the course of this season – especially in his specialty, flat individual time trial races – his climbing skills have proven to be inferior to those of the best. In stage 13, he was even caught and overtaken in an individual time trial – although admittedly, the route was mountainous, and the rider catching him was none other than Vingegaard, an incredibly strong climber and one of the predicted favourites to win the stage. 

Nevertheless, Evenepoel started stage 14 aiming to put this behind him and push on. However, by the time the peloton hit the first climb, he was already at the back, and was dropped entirely shortly afterwards. He tried to carry on for a while – with the help of his teammate, Pascal Eenkhoorn, and the roars of support from the crowd – but ultimately abandoned before reaching the 100 kilometre to go mark. He is now expected to head home to recoup and recover in preparation for the rest of his goals for the season. 

Last, but not least, once again, UAE Team Emirates XRG showed their strength. Despite Tim Wellens dropping shortly after Evenepoel, the rest of the team remained intact, and, as we have become so accustomed to seeing over the course of this season, they appeared at the front of the peloton from the very first climb. Nils Politt in particular again showed his worth as a super domestique, riding at the front, controlling the pace well, and not letting any other teams get a look-in. Despite being a rouleur-type rider, who should ordinarily thrive most on slightly flatter terrain, he kept this up the whole way over the first two climbs, and it was only as the peloton approached the third climb that he swung off and dropped back, visibly pleased with himself and his performance. 

The rest of the team held up well too – whilst Vingegaard’s team had effectively disappeared by the 7 kilometre to go mark, Pogačar still had a number of his loyal lieutenants by his side. In fact, for most of the race Pogačar barely had to break a sweat until Vingegaard launched with 3.3 kilometres to go and he was forced to follow by himself. He did this easily, however, and then he himself attacked to catch Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). He neutralised any attack Vingegaard tried to launch, and sat wheel-sucking all the way to the end, before calmly sprinting past his rival in the final hundred metres. Thanks to his team, it seemed to be an easy day out for the World Champion, with minimal effort exerted.