
Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report from the Pyrenees.
Tom Steels, the manager of Remco Evenepoel’s team, Soudal-Quickstep, speaks: “Like I said this morning, you hope for the best and hope it turns at the moment, but he didn’t turn and he was suffering also. And then I think it’s wiser not to continue and and just recover well.
“He’s also, yeah, he still have some goals this year, maybe if he continue at the condition he had, that maybe the yeah, maybe the rest of the season has lost, so. I mean, yeah. and he was very disappointed.”
Arensman, who has won on Sierra Nevada in Spain so is no mean climber, speaks:
“I don’t know I can’t really believe it’s. I think still after being sick had a good preparation and going through my first Tour, I just wanted to experience everything and I had to be really patient the first week because it was all pretty good and I had to wait until the mountains and and then the first opportunity I got to I was already second.
“So that was already amazing and amazing experience in my first tour, but this is unbelievable now. Also, yeah, the way I did it, I think today, it’s also Carlos [Rodriguez] in that group. And he did a really good job for me, but I yeah, I don’t know. I I think I just had amazing Rels and in shape of my life.
“I thought with today and earners, three minutes, three and a half minutes is probably not enough. I have to move. Maybe it’s suicide, maybe it’s not, and I can’t believe it. I was really fading on this last climb, the second half of the climb, but I don’t know, but I think with all the fans they give me an extra few watts, I just could hold them off and some leave you know, it’s crazy.
“I wanted to experience the biggest race in the world and then to win a stage in my first Tour and in this way is unbelievable, you know, it’s crazy.”
General Classification after stage 14
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - XRG 50:40:28
2. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike +4:13
3. Florian Lipowitz (GER) Red Bull - BORA - +7:53
4. Oscar Onley (GBR) Team Picnic PostNL +9:18
5. Kévin Vauquelin (FRA) Arkéa - B&B Hotels +10:21
6. Primoz Roglic (SLO) Red Bull - BORA - +10:34
7. Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +12:00
Team8. Tobias Johannessen (NOR) Uno-X Mobility +12:33
9. Ben Healy (IRL) EF Education - EasyPost +18:41
10. Carlos Rodríguez (ESP) INEOS Grenadiers +22:57
Stage 14 result
1. Thymen Arensman (NED) INEOS Grenadiers 4:53:35
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - XRG +1:08
3. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike +1:12
4. Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +1:19
Team5. Florian Lipowitz (GER) Red Bull - BORA - +1:25
hansgrohe6. Oscar Onley (GBR) Team Picnic PostNL +2:09
7. Ben Healy (IRL) EF Education - EasyPost +2:46
8. Primoz Roglic (SLO) Red Bull - BORA
9. Tobias Johannessen (NOR) Uno-X Mobility +2:59
10. Kévin Vauquelin (FRA) Arkéa - B&B Hotels +3:08
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Jonas Vingegaard speaks: “Probably one of the toughest mountain stages I have done. A super-hard day. We wanted to try to win the stage. They couldn’t follow Arensmam, he did a good performance on the final climb. When I realised Tadej woudn’t try I thought I would do it myself.”
'Ineos car crashes into spectator'
Some bad news for Team Ineos, via Reuters: “An Ineos-Grenadiers team car hit and knocked down a spectator during the 14th stage of the Tour de France cycle race, TV footage showed on Saturday.
“The team car was in the middle of the road to the Col de Peyresourde, about 200 metres from the top of the ascent, when it struck the spectator, who was cheering the riders on. Organisers told Reuters they were not aware of the accident while Ineos-Grenadiers were not immediately available for comment.”
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And in the sprint through the mist, it’s Pogacar – relentless – takes the bonus seconds from Vingegaard. Gall is fourth, and Florian Lipowitz comes in. Oscar Onley finishes fifth and is fourth on GC. Scotland’s honour on this climb is repeated. Ben Healy, meanwhile, is back in the top 10 GC.
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Thymen Arensman takes stage 17 for Team Ineos
For once, the breakaway worked. What a win for him. One hundred metres from the line and he knows he’s done. The Ineos drought is over.
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0.5 km to go: Pogacar and Vingegaard thick as thieves. They won’t be catching Arensman.
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1 km to go: Arensman, into the mist and that steep final kilometre, and victory is in sight. What a ride from him.
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1.5 km to go: The rest of the GC contenders shelling seconds as the two leaders cycle through incredible crowds. Arensman holds his lead. Big Sir Jim, on his fly-fishing trip with United execs, is surely watching. The Ineos drought might be over.
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2.5km to go: Pogacar goes – and takes Gall – Vingegaard goes with Pogacar. Now another dig from the former champion. The gap to Arensman is 1.30”. Surely?
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3km to go: Gall has 30 seconds on the GC group but must still make up 1’ 40” or so on Arensman. Vingegaard attacks and Yates has no response. Pogacar holds the wheel, and looks unconcerned. Florian Lipowitz, in third, has to give everything to hold on. Onley is 15 seconds back – did he have a problem?
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4 km to go: Rob Hatch on TNT says that Pippa York has been on to him and fears for Arensen. She knows how this feels, though had Pedro Delgado for company. Oh, those team Z colours. Arensman seems to hold on to time when Gall hits the harder gradient himself.
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5 km to go: Gall has the gap down to two minutes. We await the Pogacar charge. Arensman, as the gradient rises, starts to look leggy. In the GC pack, Vaquelin looks to have cracked. Ben Healy is bouncing back, too.
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6 km to go: Gall has a real job on his hands to close on Arensman, who has the race to himself. It’s all on him though there are signs of fatigue as he reaches for a bidon. A truce called in the GC group? Perhaps. At least until the final metres and bonus seconds.
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7 km: Felix Gall’s break from the Pogacar group triggers a response. Adam Yates is pulling Pogacar up the hill. Gall overtakes the pursuers and now he is the main challenger to Arensman.
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8 km to go: Two riders to work with for Pogacar. No real pressure on the chasing group. That’s down to three men: Tobias Johannessen leads Rodriguez and Rubio as Paret-Peintre is shelled. Arensman is holding them off rather successfully. This is the ride of his life.
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10km to go: Pogacar, Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, the top three on GC are in the third pack on the road as Arensen sets off on his final dig. The gap to Pogacar is under three minutes. Soler is done for the day. Kuss is dropping back to help Vingo. Martinez, polka points pocketed, has cracked.
12km to go: Warren Barguil goes out the back as Oscar Onley, his teammate, the Scot, the plucky Brit, and in the GC race, hangs on grimly. Arensman is metres from the final climb, the test of his destiny. Some rare good news for Big Sir Jim? We’re about to find out.
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13km to go: Vingegaard and Pogacar’s pack gets in gear as they enter the preliminaries. Marc Soler leads Pogacar. The gap to the breakaway is over three minutes. Chickenfeed? Perhaps only for Pogacar. Simon Yates and Jorgensen have dropped off the breakaway, and that’s bad news for Visma. Arensen has two minutes on the pack. Campanaerts is the last Vingegaard bag-man, battling himself to stay in the pack.
15km to go: This stage was last a summit finish in 1989, and won by Scotland’s Robert Millar, now called Pippa York. The race leader that evening was Laurent Fignon, soon to fall victim to the closest finish in Tour history. Lemond was just seven seconds behind. He would need just eight.
20km to go: Lenny Martinez took eight points in the polka points race, and that means he has only dropped two all day. A big day for him. Let’s see what Luchon Superbagneres brings.
Via climbfinders: “Luchon Superbagnères is a climb in the region French Pyrenees. It is 17.1km long and bridges 1161 vertical meters with an average gradient of 6.8%, resulting in a difficulty score of 892. The top of the ascent is located at 1795 meters above sea level”
25km to go: The descent is rapid, the kilometres eaten up, the gaps promisingly large. It’s at 20km that the climbing starts to begin before the true final haul begins.
Arensman leads over the Peyresourde
33km to go: Arensman, today’s rocket man, has led them over the Peyresourde. In 2007, Alexander Vinokourov led over the top. Somewhere in the race caravan, he’s leading Astana. His feat in 2007 was expunged for one of the odder doping sagas. The gap in 2025 is 1’ 25”. Marc Soler is leading UAE’s team over the top. They are two minutes behind the Martinez/Kuss group. Down to Louchon they go…
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35km to go: Yates seems to step off as the groups join up. He’s capable of being a lone wolf as he showed to such effect in that incredible Giro win. Ben O’Connor starts to lose pace, too. Back in the yellow jersey group, Nils Pollitt, having pulled the peloton along, is sat up, done for the day. But not for Le Tour. Big smile on his face as he clocks off. The gap to the very front is under three minutes. Riding for Big Sir Jim’s Ineos, Thymen Arensman, has gone for it, and ends up taking 40 seconds off the rest. And climbing…what an effort.
4okm to go: Calm before the storm, though the maillot jaune group is now back just three minutes, a totally bridgeable gap. Kuss and Simon Yates are up the field for Vingegaard, and can pace him to meet Pogacar for the final boss fight. Kuss is in the lead group, Yates the second group under 25 seconds back. A reunion surely imminent.
50mkm to go: Behind the leaders, two groups – one is 1’50”, the yellow is 3’ 31”, and Milan is just over 16 minutes back. The hard work starts soon, though. Into the valley the leading trio ride. Peyresourde is next, a category one climb.
55km to go: Martinez, not so brave – or foolish - a descender – is caught by Kuss and Paret-Peintre, and a trio forms that can work together over the Peyresourde. Race radio informs the riders that this is a “technical” descent.
60km to go: Martinez, the lone rider, takes five points at the peak of the Aspin.
To quote the sponsors, a famed hypermarché: “He is thus the first rider to reach the 50-point mark and will receive the promised bonus to celebrate 50 years of the polka dot jersey!”
Perhaps a free run on a pick n’ mix, or those small bottles of beer they do.
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65km to go: It’s a 5km climb, the Aspin, and the people are out in force, and with far less mist to negotiate. Martinez is looking good on the climbs, less good on the descent. Kuss is 50 seconds back. Pogacar is looking comfortable enough as his team leads him up the climb.
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70km to go: That Kuss group is closing on Martinez at just under 50 seconds. The Col d’Aspin beckons Martinez as he starts the second category climb and looks in good nick. He has 2,500 of climbing to complete by the end of the day. The Pogacar group, led by UAE lieutenants, is almost four minutes behind.
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80km to go: Sepp Kuss, the American is in a pack just over a minute behind Martinez. Pogacar is four minutes behind. The weather has blown a hole in the race. They will regroup in the valley then…more climbing.
90km to go: As the pack climbs over the summit, Julian Alaphilippe, the French veteran, grabs a cardboard sign to thrust down his jersey for warmth on the descent. A lack of L’Equipe newsprint for him to use. The digital media has many byproducts, not all of them as useful as that. There is sun at the bottom of the valley but first they must negotiate a squall of showers and some decidedly risky, skiddy ground. Michael Woods was second over the summit but nobody is pelting down the descent. It’s far too dangerous.
Meanwhile, the grupetto, featuring Milan, is dropping back and back.
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Martinez leads over the Tourmalet
93km to go: Lenny Martinez takes the points on the mountain summit, and leads the polka dot jersey all on his own. Pogacar may have plenty to say on that. The scenes as he takes his way over are superb, as Martinez meanders through the mist, the noise deafening. There are few better sights in sport.
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95km to go: Leaders over the Tourmalet from the sports’s golden era:
1989: Robert Millar (now called Pippa York), 1990: Miguel Martinez-Torres, 1991: Claudio Chiappucci, 1993: Tony Rominger, 1994: Richard Virenque, 1995 :Richard Virenque
Whiffy in some cases, but golden days nonetheless. Last year, it was Oier Lazkano.
97km to go: Lenny Martinez is after mountain points. He wants the jersey for himself, rather than Pogacar. Ben O’Connor has been dropped.
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Remco Evenepoel abandons
99km to go: Evenepoel has been handing out bottles to fans, and chatting to his team car. He shoos away the TV but the picture is eventually captured: he’s soon in the back of the Soudal–Quick-Step car, and that’s that. Skjelmoose, an earlier crasher, has abandoned. Ben Healy and Wout van Aert are both struggling. Simon Yates is off the back of the pace, too. The heat to rain change has done for a few riders here.
100km to go: Evenepoel dropping back
It’s not pleasant to see, and he’s been struggling a while for sickness. He’s 45 seconds back, dropping off everyone, and an abandonment cannot be ruled out. No teammates around him, suggesting Soudal are planning without him. A sad sight. Ivan Romeo, the Spanish champion, looks even worse. There’s sickness in the pack. The gap from the breakaway to the yellow jersey is just over two minutes. Is this a day for the break or another Pog v Ving battle?
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105 km to go: Evenepoel in trouble? Or is this tactical? Thymen Arensman and Lenny Martinez, the polka, lead the break. Einer Rubio, the Colombian, is up there, with Valentin Paret-Peintre completing the quartet, with chasers wanting to get involved.
107 km to go: From wikipedia:
Some Frenchmen believe that Tourmalet translates into “bad trip” or “bad detour” because in French Tour translates into “trip” and mal translates into “bad”; however, the correct language to translate from is Gascon, not French, because of the mountain’s location in the Gascony region. Then Tour becomes “distance”, which is spelled “tur” but pronounced “tour” and mal is translated into “mountain”. The translation from Gascon to English then becomes “Distance Mountain”.[6]
Tourmalet is also a cheese made from sheep milk produced in these mountains.
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Milan takes the intermediate sprint
112km to go: Lidl-Trek control the sprint, and Milan gets his heart’s desire, pretty much uncontested, and he claims the 20 points. Mathieu van der Poel and Biniam Girmay trail him in. The gap to Pogacar is extended to 48 points. Time to sit up for Milan. Ominously, UAE seem to want to take over, and that spells trouble for the GC hopefuls. Milan drops back, and is soon 1’ 30” down.
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115km to go: The gap is closed down, and the trio are on their radios, asked to conserve energy for what follows the sprint. Milan’s team are leading the peloton. Will Pogacar have a dig? That will indicate whether he wants to be the new “Cannibal” or not. He probably does, you know.
120km to go: Skjelmoose has a long day ahead of him, unless he choose to abandon. G et al open up a gap as they enter the foothills of Tourmalet. Here’s where the hard work really starts.
125km to go: Mattias Skjelmose is the man down, and he’s the mountaineer in the Lidl-Trek team. Little chance of him competing today. He hit some road furniture – thankfully padded. He gets back on after running repairs are carried out. Meanwhile, an another band of escapees, and it’s Thomas back in there again, with Pacher and Vercher, two Frenchmen.
130 km to go: Another small group off the front, and again they are closed off. It feels like that sprint will see all the pack competing together. Jonathan Milan is making sure he’s in that sprint by leading the entire field. Using up energy? Perhaps, but that sprint in Esquieze-Sere is his target for the day. There’s been a crash in the field, and it looks bad.
140 km to go: As Lourdes arrives. a breakaway that may be worth its healing salts, is forming. Hard work is being put in as they depart the town that features the Grotto of the Apparitions. But no, denied. The peloton isn’t letting anyone away just yet. There will be riders already thinking of the grupetto but they will be made to race before anything like that can form. This is a long old day in the saddle. Geraint Thomas is in the vanguard. Why not? One last ride into the sunset for “G”?
Steff Cras abandons
145 km to go: Steff Cras, the Total Energies GC rider, has abandoned. He has the pained look of a man awaiting the beaten, backseat drive up the mountain in a team car. An ambulance joins him to check on him. Sickness appears the problem for the Belgian, who is shedding salt tears and being consoled. Lourdes is up ahead, and even those healing powers could have kept him in the race.
150 km to go: The road snaking inexorably upwards, but little time to take in the countryside, featuring sheep looking down on the peloton. Fred Wright, of Bahrain Victorious, eyes an escape on roads that wind away and offer places to hide from the pack. He’ll need company to make more of this escape.
160 km to go: Jonathan Milan, the points leader, has gone on a wildcat attack. He hopes to stay away for the sprint that’s 45km away, and he can hold off Pog from taking his green jersey away. He finds himself chased down as 22 seconds of a lead drops away rather swiftly.
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170 km to go: Matteo Trentin, the veteran, and Pogacar share a fist bump. The roads continue to show the effects of the downpour. There’s word of a crash at the back of the pack. How serious? Clement Berthet, the Decathlon rider, has road rash and is having his knee and elbow looked at. The doctor patches him up.
180 km to go: Quentin Pacher sets off, and fancies a home breakaway. He will soon have company as the peloton snakes into le campagne, the roads slowly narrowing as they exit the boulevards. A downhill pulls Pacher back into the pack who are flying along.
Off we go in Pau!
They idle out of the mountain city, a beautiful place, trees full of green, refreshed by the summer rain. Bryan Coquard is not among them, his broken finger ruling him out. He was struggling to brake. Christian Prudhomme gets them launched and off go the attempted escapees.
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We approach the départ réel, the reality of a heavy day in the saddle dawns. Here we go!
In Pau, the rain is coming down but that’s cooled the temperature down to 19 degrees.
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In summary, Pogacar rules the waves, and the hills, and almost the flat, too.
Eddy Merckx is the only cyclist to have won all three individual classifications in a single Tour de France. He achieved this in 1969, winning yellow, green and polka dot jersey. That’s the only time that’s been done on a Grand Tour.
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Top five points leaders
1. Jonathan Milan (ITA) Lidl - Trek 231
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - XRG 203
3. Mathieu van der Poel (NED) Alpecin - Deceuninck 173
4. Biniam Girmay (ERI) Intermarché - Wanty 154
5. Tim Merlier (BEL) Soudal Quick-Step 150
King of the Mountains top five
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - XRG 37
2. Lenny Martinez (FRA) Bahrain Victorious 27
3. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike “
4. Michael Woods (CAN) Israel - Premier Tech 22
5. Ben Healy (IRL) EF Education - EasyPost 16
Here’s the Top 10 GC
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - XRG 45:45:51
2. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike +4:07
3. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal Quick-Step +7:24
4. Florian Lipowitz (GER) Red Bull - BORA - +7:30
5. Oscar Onley (GBR) Team Picnic PostNL +8:11
6. Kévin Vauquelin (FRA) Arkéa - B&B Hotels +8:15
7. Primoz Roglic (SLO) Red Bull - BORA - +8:50
8. Tobias Johannessen (NOR) Uno-X Mobility +10:36
9. Felix Gall (AUT) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +11:43
Team10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Team Visma - Lease a Bike +14:15
Here’s the official Tour de France map of today’s stage 14.
Some Col du Tourmalet data via Strava:
Key details
Distance: 18.83 km
Elevation Gain: +1,398 m
Average Gradient: 7.65%
KOM (fastest time)
Belongs to Thibault Pinot at 51:13 min.
This was set on 20th July 2019, and you can view the activity here.
Pro v amateur comparison
It takes an average amateur 1 hour and 51 minutes to complete this segment, while the average pro takes around 1 hour and 8 minutes.
Jeremy Whittle on Friday’s time-trial triumph.
The second time trial in the 2025 Tour was expected to further confirm Pogacar’s supremacy over the peloton and so it proved, as the defending champion extended his lead to over four minutes with his fourth stage win in this year’s race and the 21st Tour stage of his career.
Riding a standard road bike instead of a time trial setup, he was the fastest at every time check on the 10.9km climb, in many ways a carbon copy of Thursday’s ascent to Hautacam, where he also triumphed.
Preamble
Le Tour is Pogacar’s. That much we know, as Tadej, as his good lady wife calls him, has been devastating as soon as the race reached the mountains, previous rivals unable to live with him. This, let us recall, is a rider who has also competed for the Classics all year; this isn’t supposed to happen in the modern age. Though Pogacar is rewriting history and collecting stages at a rate that must have Mark Cavendish twitching. The gap is over four minutes, just a crack on a mountain pass away but can Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel rely on that?
Today, the middle Saturday, is another journey into the heart of the Pyrenees. Time for a breakaway? The truth is nobody is strong enough to break away from Pogacar. And as he said himself: “it’s the Tour, you cannot just back off if there’s the opportunity for a stage win. You never know when it’s your last day on the Tour.”
William Fotheringham’s verdict is thus:
A mountain classic: Cols de Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde, plus the pull up to the ski station, where winners include Federico Bahamontes, Greg LeMond, Hinault and Robert Millar, now known as Philippa York. Four big passes make this a decisive day in the mountains prize with a ton of points on offer; the stage winner will probably be a climber who’s not figuring overall. Enric Mas of Spain might fit that bill, or the Austrian Felix Gall.