Tadej Pogacar bounces back in style with stunning stage 14 win atop Pla d'Adet at 2024 Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar has bounced back in style on stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France, distancing Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel with a blistering attack on the Pla d'Adet, en route to taking a stunning stage win.

There was an almighty fight for the breakaway on stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France. When the lead group finally formed, eight riders were able to get themselves up ahead, those being Mathieu van der Poel, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Kevin Vauquelin, Oier Lazkano, Arnaud De Lie, Cedric Beullens, Bryan Coquard and Raul Garcia Pierna.

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Chasing that lead group however, there was a second group clear of the peloton, with 15 riders, including Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen hunting Green Jersey points, and the likes of Michal Kwiatkowski, Victor Campenaerts, Ben Healy, Rui Costa and David Gaudu among others. At the intermediate sprint, won by Coquard ahead of De Lie, the second group were still over half a minute back. In the battle for 9th place at the sprint, Girmay just edged out Philipsen in a closely fought battle.

On the first climb of the day, the two attacking groups merged to form a 17-man breakaway. With UAE Team Emirates controlling things at the front of the peloton, the gap was being held at around the four minute mark. At the top of the climb, just 10 riders remained out front however, the strongest of whom proved to be Lazkano with the Movistar Team rider taking the honours on offer at the top of the Tourmalet ahead of Gaudu. Notably, their advantage was still 3:40 over the peloton too.

On the second climb of the day, Gaudu and Lazkano were again active at the head of the breakaway, drawing Ben Healy, Louis Meintjes and Michal Kwiatkowski clear with them. Their chance at a stage win however, wasn't looking good. Marc Soler had taken over from Nils Politt at the front of the peloton and smashed the time time gap down to just over a minute as the descending began.

Once Pla d'Adet began, the leading quintet had extended their advantage somewhat to 1:20 over the GC group. The first to attack was typically Ben Healy, with only Gaudu able to follow initially. With 9.4km to go though, Healy had distanced the Frenchman also, quickly extending his advantage to over half a minute to his chasers, with the peloton still over a minute down.

The first rider to attack from the GC group, was Adam Yates with just over 7km to go. An intriguing move given the fact the Brit started the day just 6:59 down on his Maillot Jaune wearing teammate. With just 6.5km to go, Yates had breezed passed all on the road bar Healy, with the Irishman just 38 seconds further up the road. Matteo Jorgenson was the man sent by the GC group to attempt to reel in Yates' attack but whilst the American was holding things to Healy at around 45 seconds, Yates was continuing to put time into the group behind.

Then finally, with around 5km to go, Pogacar attacked and attempted to bridge across to his right hand man. Neither Jonas Vingegaard or Remco Evenepoel were able to follow immediately and with 4.4km to go, the UAE Team Emirates duo caught and passed Ben Healy. Although Vingegaard threatened to make contact, a second Pogacar attack, this one leaving Yates behind saw the Slovenian power clear solo.

Into the final kilometre, Pogacar had amassed a 24 second advantage over Vingegaard, with Evenepoel and Carlos Rodriguez in a battle for 3rd on the day.

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