Stage 14 – 182km and 4,950m of vertical gain. Brutal.
170 riders would take the start today but the same number wouldn’t make it to the finish in Superbagnères. With almost 5000m of elevation gain, four categorized climbs, on and off rain and misty conditions this stage was always going to be difficult.
Despite the difficulties there was still a large number of riders who wanted to be in the break of the day and the pace was on from kilomter zero. No groups could get more than a few seconds lead though and for a number of minutes it was only the big green clad figure of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) who could create any sort of gap over the peloton.
Milan wanted to get away, but not by himself and he eventually sat up and waited for the peloton
With the high pace and constant attacking, it was not a day to be sick and suffering as Steff Cras – TotalEnergies (29th on GC) quickly found out and he was the first to abandon for the day. Shortly after, Mattias Skjelmose – Lidl-Trek (19th on GC) came down in a bad accident after colliding with some traffic furniture and he abandoned the race a few kilometers later.
It was now time for the intermediate sprint after 70km and with the peloton still all together, Jonathan Milan took maximum points ahead of Mathieu Van der Poel and Biniam Girmay.
The famous Col du Tourmalet was now in sight for the peloton and it was on the first slopes of this 19km HC climb that the break of the day finally formed. It was no surprise that the break was filled with climbers, featuring the likes of Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Sepp Kuss, Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), Thymen Arensman & Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep), Aleksander Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin Deceuninck), Michael Storer (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Einer Rubio, Enric Mas, Pablo Castrillo & Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Sergio Higuita (XDS Astana), Jordan Jegat (Total Energies) and Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech).
This group started pulling out a small gap over the rapidly shrinking peloton who lost the biggest name of the day – Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).
After two tough days in the Pyrenees the 3rd day was too much for Remco
Remco was having a terrible day and he tried to keep the peloton in sight for a few minutes but after a while he couldn’t even follow the wheel of his teammate Pascal Eenkhoorn and soon made the difficult decision to abandon the race.
Meanwhile upfront Lenny Martinez was on a great day and he left behind the breakaway and headed to the summit of the Tourmalet solo to take maximum points in the KOM competition.
French favorite Martinez was to have a big day out front today
Behind Martinez the break was splitting up and it was Sepp Kuss and Valentin Paret-Peintre who bridged up to Martinez and we now had a trio of leaders 2 minutes ahead of the Ineos & Movistar led rest of the break with the UAE led peloton a further 3 minutes behind.
Kuss on the attack!
Just before the second last climb of the day the break caught up with the trio of leaders and the peloton was catching up fast too. It was to be a real battle between the GC favorites Pogacar & Vingergaard and the riders from the break for the stage victory.
Discreet all day in the break, Thymen Arensman (Ineos) made his move on the Col de Peyresourde with 36km remaining in the stage and he quickly had a minute’s lead over his fellow escapees but just 3m30s over the peloton. Would it be enough with the HC summit finish in Superbagnères?
Alone in the lead and looking strong
The ever shrinking peloton were under the control of UAE and they were slowly bring down Arensman’s lead but Pogacar didn’t seem too interested in the stage victory. Felix Gall (Decathlon) was though and he took off solo in chase of Arensman but he could only bring the gap down to 2 minutes with 4km remaining.
It was at this moment that Vingegaard attacked and only Pogacar and briefly Lipowitz could follow. They soon caught Gall who would then be dropped when Pogacar and then Vingegaard attacked again. The top 2 on GC couldn’t be separated though and Arensman was able to hang on to his slim lead all the way to the line to take an excellent stage win for the Ineos team.
A well deserved victory
Pogacar then easily outsprinted Vingegaard for 2nd place just over a minute behind before the rest of the field came home in ones and twos. With Remco now out of the Tour the podium race is wide open and for the moment it’s RedBull’s Lipowitz in prime position but Oscar Onley is still threatening.
Tomorrow’s stage is an easier ride to Carcassonne before the mammoth stage up to Mont Ventoux on Tuesday where anything could happen.
Tomorrow’s stage – another for the breakaways?
Stage 14 Results:
1 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers 4:53:35
2 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 1:08
3 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 1:12
4 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 1:19
5 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 1:25
6 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL @ 2:09
7 Healy Ben EF Education – EasyPost @ 2:46
8 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
9 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 2:59
10 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 3:08
GC After Stage 14:
1 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG 50:40:28
2 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 4:13
3 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 7:53
4 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL @ 9:18
5 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 10:21
6 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 10:34
7 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 12:00
8 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 12:33
9 Healy Ben EF Education – EasyPost @ 18:41
10 Rodríguez Carlos INEOS Grenadiers @ 22:57
11 Jegat Jordan Team TotalEnergies @ 24:18
12 O’Connor Ben Team Jayco AlUla @ 30:15
13 Narváez Jhonatan UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 31:55
14 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers @ 42:56
15 Yates Simon Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 45:49
The post TOUR’25 Stage 14: Arensman From The Break! appeared first on PezCycling News.
