"I thought I had a good pace, but I lost 4 minutes. They are on another planet" - Guillaume Martin reacts to insane performances by Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard

Guillaume Martin continues to fight his way through the 2024 Tour de France despite not exactly ideal form. The Frenchman however felt good on Pla d'Adet. Even then, he lost four minutes to stage winner Tadej Pogacar, which through him into a slight disbelief.

Martin is well aware he won't be a match for the Slovenian, however the gap was still far larger than the Cofidis rider would have imagined: "I still had a good pace and I think I saw 4 minutes of delay on the line, it's been the case on every climb for some time," the Frenchman summed up the fourteenth stage jokingly for Cyclism'Actu.

Despite a clear intention to fight for a stage from breakaway, Martin wasn't part of it on Saturday. He explained the reason for his absence from the breakaway: "When I saw that the breakaway took a long time to form, I understood that there would not be a huge lead at the top of the Tourmalet and that UAE probably still had a plan in mind, so I preferred not to risk taking this breakaway. Once again, frustrating for the attackers. The tempo was fast all day, it was tiring, we are coming to the end of 15 days of racing. I hung on as best I could."

The Cofidis climber explained the gap in level between him and the best: "It's another world. They continued to accelerate when I was decreasing. I had the impression of having a good rhythm, I looked at the line, almost 4 minutes. And it's been like that on every climb for some time. They are on another planet."