Even on the hardest battleground, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and two-time winner Tadej Pogacar couldn’t separate themselves Saturday after a dramatic day in the Alps at the Tour de France.
Again in a category of their very own, Pogacar and Vingegaard completed second and third respectively at the ski station of Morzine after one other fierce combat that concluded a day of attrition in the 14th stage.
The pair was properly forward of their struggling total challengers at some level in the ultimate ascent, the daunting Col de Joux Plane, however allowed stage winner Carlos Rodriguez to come again as the duo watched one another like monitor cyclists in a velodrome, ready for a gap to get the greatest bonus at the prime of the steep ascent. Vingegaard received this duel.
Rodriguez, a Tour debutant, then moved away from the pair in the downhill main to Morzine.
Vingegaard saved the yellow jersey, growing his total lead by only one second to 10 seconds after Pogacar sprinted to safe second place in the stage. Rodriguez moved up to third place total – 4 minutes, 43 seconds behind Vingegaard – after his first Tour stage win.
Rodriguez had trailed by a couple of minute however made the most of the pair’s duel to prevail.
“I didn’t think it was possible when I got dropped in the Joux Plane,” he mentioned. “I tried to climb at my own pace to later do the descent as fast as possible. I am a good descender, I wanted to take advantage. I was close to crashing a couple of times … I took some risks.”
Rodriguez grew to become the youngest Spanish stage winner in the race’s historical past at 22 years, 5 months, 13 days.
Vingegaard amassed a complete of 12 bonus seconds for first place at the prime of the climb and his third-place end. Pogacar had 11, second at summit and second-place end.
“It’s going to be really tight,” Pogacar mentioned after the stage.
The 179-kilometer 15th stage to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc on Sunday is one other tough trek with a mountaintop end earlier than Monday’s second relaxation day.
⏪An awesome downhill that adopted a good better climb. It was a dream for @_rccarlos as he wins in Morzine. The ultimate km ⤵️
⏪Une énorme descente qui a suivi une montée encore plus folle. C’était un rêve pour @_rccarlos qui s’impose à Morzine. Le dernier km ⤵️#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/P7SSf7Td6e
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2023
