Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard entertained the world with Saturday’s epic Tour de France battle on the slopes of the Alpine climb Joux Plane. By the time the stage ended, yellow jersey Vingegaard had gained a single second on the Slovenian. Carlos Rodriguez’s grand stage triumph made it two in a row for Ineos, and the Spaniard took over the final podium spot at the expense of Jai Hindley, also by a single second.
The Course
After the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Juras, it was time for the Alps. Saturday’s 152-km route held five categorized climbs, with a Cat. 3 and two Cat. 1s in the first half, and a Cat. 1 and an HC in the second half. The HC ascent was the 11.7-km, 8.5 percent Col de Joux Plane, peaking 12 km from the finish line in Morzine les Portes du Soleil. There were bonus seconds atop Joux Plane.
Five hard climbs, including the Ramaz and Joux Plane, and a fast descent to Morzine – stage 14 of the #TDF2023 has all the ingredients needed for a spectacular day of racing. pic.twitter.com/j2qvrAabzN
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 15, 2023
The first hour was marked by crashes and a huge breakaway. Thirteenth-place Louis Meintjes was among two riders who had to abandon after a crash just after the start in Annemasse. It was the kind of parcours that was going to elicit a big escape, and sure enough Hugo Houle was in the gang that got loose on the appetizer climb, Cat. 3 Col de Saxel. On the descent, 12th-place Romain Bardet crashed out. Five riders abandoned with crash injuries by the 30-km point.
On Cat. 1 Col de Cou, Michael Woods bridged over from the peloton. Giulio Ciccone crested just before KOM jersey holder Neilson Powless. The breakaway started the descent of the Cou just 30 seconds clear of the peloton.
Next up was the Cat. 1 Col du Feu. The peloton was still snapping at the fugitives’ heels. The breakaway was in pieces. Woods, Thibaut Pinot, Ciccone, Mikel Landa and Alex Aranburu stole away from the others. Woods then attacked with Ciccone following, the Italian taking the maximum KOM points up front. Ciccone was now 12 points behind polka dot jersey Powless. Woods was now in eighth place in the KOM.
There was an unclassified climb capped with the day’s intermediate sprint. Here the breakaway reformed, shrank and worried about the Jumbo-Visma-powered peloton that was still…
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