Tadej Pogacar took a big step towards a third Tour de France title as he won stage 14 to extend his advantage in yellow while defending champion Jonas Vingegaard moved up to second overall.
On the first of four summit finishes in this Tour, Pogacar attacked five kilometres from the top of the climb to the ski resort of Pla d’Adet to win by 39 seconds from Vingegaard, who was at least able to take 31 seconds on Remco Evenepoel to move up a step on the podium.
Taking revenge for his frustration when Vingegaard pipped him to victory in Le Lioran on Wednesday, Pogacar made a significant statement with his second stage win of this Tour, one that sees his lead in yellow grow to one minute 57 seconds, with Vingegaard 25 seconds ahead of Evenepoel.
Pogacar insisted his late acceleration came about by “instinct” but there was certainly a plan at work, as his team-mate Adam Yates had attacked from the group of favourites just before Pogacar’s move, putting pressure on Vingegaard’s Visma Lease-a-bike team before providing a bridge to Pogacar.
“We tried to go for the stage but more in a sprint but in this kind of situation Adam attacked, and I could see that if I bridge to Adam with a gap he can pull me and this was really perfect,” Pogacar said. “A big thank you to all the team, they were amazing.
“The plan was just to come to sprint at the final, to make the sprint hard and maybe take some seconds with a stage win but in the end this is much better.”
Pogacar’s team-mates Marc Soler and Joao Almeida paced the main contenders up the double-digit gradients at the start of the climb before Yates attacked with a little over seven kilometres to go.
The Lancastrian quickly chased down Ireland’s Ben Healy, the last survivor of a breakaway hugely whittled down on the Tourmalet midway through the 151km stage from Pau, but it was apparent Yates was not interested in actually catching Healy as he constantly looked over his shoulder.
Instead Yates was waiting for the attack from Pogacar which came with five kilometres left.
“It was a little bit of improvisation,” Yates said. “I was ready to do the pacing like normal but (Pogacar) told me to attack. I was like, ‘What?’.
“I looked behind to see where he was and he came across. I couldn’t do too much because I was a little bit cooked but it was a good day because we took time.”
Vingegaard could not follow Pogacar’s move, and the gap steadily grew on the road up to the finish as both riders dealt with one spectator intent on throwing crisps into their faces.
Evenepoel battled to stay with Vingegaard but lost the wheel – and with it second place – around four kilometres from the finish.
As Pogacar and UAE celebrated, it was another day where concerns over Covid-19 within the peloton grew.
Tom Pidcock – who is 16 days out from his planned defence of his Olympic mountain bike title – did not start the stage after testing positive and displaying symptoms, instead returning home to recover.
Pidcock’s team-mate Geraint Thomas said he had also tested positive, but rode on after speaking to the team’s medical staff, albeit being dropped early on the Tourmalet.
Speaking before the start of the stage, Thomas said: “For me I’m also not great, I’ve tested positive but I’ve just got mild symptoms and the docs are monitoring me closely and they’ve got their protocols when it comes to respiratory conditions.
“At the minute it’s just a bit of a headache and a runny nose so we’ll just see how it goes.”