PARIS — Two-time champion Tadej Pogacar surged ahead on the last climb to win the mountainous 14th stage of the Tour de France and extend his overall lead to nearly two minutes.
The elite climbers’ duel between Pogacar and the two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard finally came when Pogacar peeled away with about five kilometers (three miles) left.
“I love racing on instinct,” Slovenian Pogacar said according to AP. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn´t, but I love it that way.”
Pogacar caught up with and overtook his UAE Emirates teammate Adam Yates, while Vingegaard was initially dropped but showed good composure to limit the damage.
The Dane crossed the line 39 seconds behind the Slovenian Pogacar, who completed the 152-kilometer (99-mile) trek in just over four hours.
“Let´s keep this positive energy so we can win more,” Pogacar said. “I was feeling really good.”
Remco Evenepoel of Belgium was third and dropped to third overall behind Vingegaard.
“I stayed with him a little but he rode faster and faster and I was dropped,” Evenepoel said. “The pace was very high.”
After about two hours riders reached the first of the day’s two big climbs – a 19-kilometer (12-mile) grind up the Col du Tourmalet, one of the race´s most famed Pyrenean climbs.
The second climb to the finish at Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d´Adet was shorter at 10.6 kilometers (seven miles) but with a steeper gradient.
Irishman Ben Healy attacked first but was caught by Yates, who set up Pogacar for his 13th stage win of his Tour career.
“Thanks to all the team, especially Adam,” said Pogacar, who won his second Tour in 2021.
Time bonuses for the victory added four valuable seconds and extended Pogacar’s lead over Vingegaard to 1 minute, 57 seconds.
“It’s a good lead, but you never know,” Pogacar said. “There is a long way to go.”
Evenepoel was 2:22 behind Pogacar heading into another big mountain stage on Sunday.
A group of 10 riders formed a breakaway in the stage, moving four minutes ahead of the yellow jersey group approaching the Tourmalet ascent.
But with Nils Politt riding tempo for Pogacar´s team, the breakaway soon shredded to five riders, including Healy.
Approaching the final climb, Healy attacked and the four others could not follow.
Healy had a chance to win his first Tour stage and a second in major races following a stage win at the Giro d´Italia last year. But those hopes ended when Yates, followed by Pogacar, overtook him.
Their attack seemed to surprise Vingegaard, who beat Pogacar to win Stage 11 on Wednesday, and it looked like he would lose significantly more time. But a strong response from the Team Jumbo Visma rider helped him stay within one minute of Pogacar.
Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay, who has won three stages, retained the best sprinter’s green jersey.
Jasper Philipsen won the 13th stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish and two-time champion Pogacar kept the yellow jersey.
Several riders fell in a crash a few hundred meters from the line but Pogacar, who was just ahead, avoided it.
Philipsen held off Belgian countryman Wout van Aert and German rider Pascal Ackermann after 3 1/2 hours to clinch his second stage win this month, eighth overall on the Tour, and 11th on major races. He also owns three stage wins on the Spanish Vuelta.
“We pushed hard from the start and we never slowed down. The crosswinds livened up the entire stage,” Philipsen said. “I had my best feelings since the start of the Tour.”
Pogacar placed ninth in the stage and still leads by 1 minute, 6 seconds from Remco Evenepoel of Belgium and by 1:14 from two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark.
The flat trek gave sprinters valuable points in the green jersey contest, taking the peloton on a 165-kilometer (103-mile) route from Agen to the southwestern city of Pau on the Pyrenees mountains´ northern edge.
Primoz Roglic, the 2020 runner-up to his Slovenian countryman Pogacar, withdrew ahead of the stage a day after a crash.
As riders prepared to start Friday’s stage, one fan held up a sign with “Allez Paugacar!” written on it, a play on words with the city of Pau and Pogacar.
A four-rider breakaway consisting of Julien Bernard, Romain Gregoire, Michal Kwiatkowski and Magnus Cort snaked through rolling countryside before being caught some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the end.
