Pogačar Wins Stage 14, Extends Tour Lead as Vingegaard Falters
Tadej Pogačar claimed his fourth stage victory on the Vosges, increasing his overall lead to four and a half minutes while Jonas Vingegaard finished fourth after a late surge failed to close the gap.
Tadej Pogačar broke away from a small group near the summit of the final climb on Stage 14 of the Tour de France and rode solo to the finish line, securing his fourth stage win of the race. His teammate Isaac del Toro led the chase behind him and won the sprint for second place, finishing 38 seconds behind Pogačar, while Jonas Vingegaard arrived fourth, 44 seconds behind the winner.
The result widened Pogačar’s overall advantage to 4 minutes 30 seconds over his rivals. The 27-year-old said, "This is a really perfect day. We marked this stage since the beginning. I know this stage very well, it’s beautiful."
Visma-Lease a Bike attempted to pressure Pogačar on the final ascent, with Sepp Kuss and Vingegaard setting a hard pace, but the Slovenian waited until the last two kilometres before launching his attack. He explained, "I knew that Isaac was maybe not 100 percent, so I was waiting for the last 2 km to see if there was going to be any movement. Decathlon and Jonas actually did a really hard pace on the climb. Guys were dropping one-by-one. But I felt good, so I said, ‘I’ll try the last two kilometres, I know them very well.’"
The stage, a 155-km route featuring four categorized climbs and a short summit finish at Le Markstein, marked the race’s first major mountain test since the Tourmalet stage. The UAE Emirates-XRG team controlled the peloton throughout the day, while a breakaway of 37 riders was eventually caught before the final climb.
Pogačar’s victory also moved his career total to 125 wins, including 25 at the Tour de France. The time gap now places Remco Evenepoel 46 seconds behind del Toro in the general classification, while Tom Pidcock fell out of the top positions after losing three minutes on the stage.