INEOS’ Carlos Rodriguez stole past the leading pair of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar over the top of the Col de Joux-Plane and eeked out a narrow win of the Tour de France’s 14th stage on the descent to Morzine. Rodriguez, the 22-year-old debutante at Le Tour, has been the revelation of the race as he secures a second consecutive stage win for his team and snuck past Jai Hindley by a single second for third place overall at the moment. Rodriguez had been temporarily left behind on the Joux-Plane with under 3km remaining as Adam Yates of UAE took over the lead for his teammate Pogacar and distanced everyone but overall leader Jonas Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss. The two nearly-co-leaders (now separated by 10 seconds overall) then took over, with Pogacar taking a lead of under 10 seconds as they ground their way up the fearsome climb. Closer to 1km remaining, Vingegaard fought back to the wheel of Pogacar, who then slowed down presumably to contest the time bonus sprint at the summit. This let Rodriguez and Yates back into the picture, though not in time for the sprint, which was won by Vingegaard after an initial acceleration by Pogacar was blocked by race vehicles.
Once over the top of the last rise, which came after the summit, Rodriguez made contact and immediately accelerated past the leading pair for the descent into Morzine, and they let him go, focusing on each other as they routinely have. Rodriguez never got more than a few seconds’ lead on the downslope, but it was enough to take the stage.
Photo by Bernard Papon – Pool/Getty Images
Hindley, meanwhile, had crashed earlier in the day, which may have contributed to his falling off the pace well before Rodriguez did, conceding all of his gap to the Spaniard for the final podium place. There are several mountain stages left as well as the time trial Tuesday to decide all of the podium spots, but for now the margins are impossibly thin.
The battle for overall supremacy might end up being decided by bonuses, with Pogacar picking up a cumulative 41 seconds’ worth of them to Vingegaard’s 23, keeping the margin for yellow to 10 seconds and within striking distance. Pogacar may not be able to separate from the defending winner for long, but he can generate bursts of speed that make it hard for the Dane to contest bonus sprints. Having said that,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Podium Cafe – All Posts…