"In every interview they tell me that I have to save energy, but I love racing on instinct" - Tadej Pogacar stretches Tour de France advantage to near two minutes

Tadej Pogacar was at his very best on stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France. After the blow of being caught and beaten by Jonas Vingegaard a few days prior, the UAE Team Emirates leader gained revenge and around 40 seconds on the Dane with a blistering attack on the final climb of stage 14.

“The plan was to win the stage in the final sprint and try to get a few bonus seconds, but winning like this is way better!" reflected a beaming Pogacar in his post-stage interview. "We found ourselves in an ideal scenario. Adam Yates’ attack put me in a situation in which I could attack, following my instinct. It’s because of the excellent work of my teammates that I’ve done this, and I’m thankful to all of them. I’m super happy I’ve won. I’ve got one more Tour stage win now. Let’s keep this positive energy so we can win more. This Tour de France must be great to watch on TV."

As Yates mentioned in his own post-stage interview, the UAE Team Emirates tactic of sending the Brit on the attack as a satellite rider for Pogacar to bridge across, was not a pre-planned move. "I was feeling really good today. Things were not going according to plan on the final climb, as we were missing one man - Juan Ayuso had to pull out from the race yesterday and so Joao Almeida was working very hard already with 8 km to go," Pogacar explains. "I saw an opportunity that Adam Yates could attack and go for the stage win himself, relieving us from pulling in the Yellow Jersey group."

"Then, as I was feeling super good and nobody was trying anything GC-wise, I saw an opportunity to attack myself, bridge across and get a good gap for the GC as well as the stage win. I want to stress my thanks to Adam for his work today," concludes the Slovenian, who now leads the general classification by 1:57 over Jonas Vingegaard. "The situation in the GC is definitely better now than it was before the stage, but you never know how things will end up. There is a long way to go until Nice. The real mountain stages just started today! The key is we have a strong team to support my options. In every interview they tell me that I have to save energy, but I love racing on instinct. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t… but I love it that way.”