Carlos Rodriguez takes breakthrough victory as Pogacar and Vingegaard cancel each other out on breathtaking stage 14 at the Tour de France

On an incredible day of racing it was Carlos Rodriguez who took a stunning, breakthrough victory on stage 14 of the 2023 Tour de France as the battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard saw just a second in the favour of the Jumbo-Visma man.

Stage 14 of the Tour de France will be one of the hardest stages of the race, featuring four ascents early in the day where the race will stabilize. It is another short stage, but one where differences can be made.

After the initial flag drop, stage 14 was quickly brought to a halt after a mass crash saw half the peloton hit the deck. The size of the crash was so big, the stage was momentarily neutralised.

The chaos continued once the race was back underway with Louis Meintjes and Antonio Pedrero abandoning first. Then Esteban Chaves stepped off after initially trying to carry on before a second crash of the day saw Romain Bardet and James Shaw forced to call it a day.

Once the race finally calmed down somewhat, a big group went clear with some elite riders such as Giulio Ciccone, Michael Woods, Thibaut Pinot, Mikel Landa, Juan Pedro Lopez, Guillaume Martin, Daniel Martinez and Neilson Powless.

Despite there not being any real threats to Jonas Vingegaard's Maillot Jaune, the pace being set by Jumbo-Visma was relentlessly brutal, the gap being held at less than half a minute.

As they began the 1st category, 13.9km climb of the Col de la Ramaz, just 11 riders remained in the breakaway with a lead of just 38 seconds over the peloton.

With just under 60km still to go, only Giulio Ciccone remained out ahead of a rampant, Jumbo-Visma-led peloton who were suffocating the race. A few moments later, Ciccone himself had been swallowed up.

One of the riders being put into trouble at the back of the group was the man who started the day in 8th overall, Tom Pidcock.

As Pidcock was trying hard to catch the leaders on the descent, his compatriot Simon Yates began to be put into difficulty, losing contact with the GC group on the downhill. After a frantic chase though, the Team Jayco AlUla successfully managed to regroup.

Once the final climb began, Simon Yates was again dropping out the back, as were Pello Bilbao and David Gaudu.

With 20km to go only Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Adam Yates, Carlos Rodriguez, Jai Hindley and Felix Gall remained in the elite group with anticipation for an inevitable attack rising.

Gall was the next to drop out and when Hindley, wearing the scars of the earlier crash began to drop away only five were left.

As Adam Yates took over at the front, Kuss and Rodriguez dropped away and suddenly only Vingegaard was able to follow the UAE Team Emirates pair.

With 15.7km to go, Pogacar launched his attack, immediately gapping the Maillot Jaune. But Vingegaard, fighting with every peddle stroke refused to give up and battled his way back into contact.

Bonus seconds were on offer at the top of the climb and it turned into something of a track sprint. As Pogacar tried to make his move for the bonus seconds however, the combination of the narrow road, the packed crowd and the race motorbikes meant the Slovenian was forced to slow.

Vingegaard then used this to his advantage, countering to take the maximum bonus seconds on offer, extending his virtual lead to 12 seconds.

On the descent to the finish line, both Rodriguez and Yates regained contact, making it a leading quartet at the front. As soon as the INEOS Grenadiers leader got back in contact, he immediately attacked over the top.

The tricky, technical descent was being made to look east by the Spaniard as Pogacar and Vingegaard started to cancel each other out.

Behind Rodriguez, Pogacar was second and Vingegaard in third.

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