The yellow and black jerseys had been swarmed on the head of the peloton all day. Jumbo-Visma’s efforts extinguished any hope of the early break going the gap on stage 14 of the Tour de France they usually additionally appeared to tease a grand offensive from maillot jaune Jonas Vingegaard. As an alternative, at day’s finish, the race remained as deadlocked as ever.
Vingegaard’s sharpness atop the Col de Joux Airplane – the place two motorbikes had already blocked an acceleration from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Staff Emirates) – noticed him beat the Slovenian to the bonus dash on the summit. Pogačar, nonetheless, returned the favour when the pair sprinted for second place behind Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos) in Morzine.
All advised, Jumbo-Visma’s stage-long toil noticed Vingegaard add only one second to his benefit, extending his slender lead over Pogačar to 10 seconds. The intention, one imagines, was to maneuver the dial a bit of greater than that however Vingegaard’s teammates declared themselves glad with their day’s work as they started to reach one after the other on the Jumbo-Visma bus.
Sepp Kuss, as ever, was Vingegaard’s final man, guiding the Dane many of the method up the Col de Joux Airplane till Pogačar’s lieutenant Adam Yates splintered the entrance group with an assault that solely the 2 favourites may comply with. The thought behind Jumbo-Visma’s persistent pace-making, it appears, was to strive to attract the sting from Pogačar’s acceleration and play to Vingegaard’s powers of endurance.
“We rode the race like we needed to,” Kuss mentioned as he warmed down outdoors the bus. “A variety of groups had been asking what we had been doing, driving with the breakaway there at 20 seconds in entrance the entire time, however we needed to journey our rhythm, make it a troublesome day after which strive on the final climb. We now have no regrets, we gave it every thing. Jonas is basically sturdy, however Pogačar is true there with him. It’s nonetheless an enormous battle.”
When Pogačar accelerated viciously 3.7km from the summit, it briefly regarded as if the Slovenian may divest Vingegaard of yellow, however the Dane by no means misplaced him from sight and clawed again onto his wheel inside the ultimate 2km of the ascent. There have been shades of Contador and Schleck on the higher reaches of the climb, the place the pair slowed and eyed each other forward of the motorbike-interrupted bonus dash. As soon as extra, there was treasured little to separate them.
“Ideally, you need a phenomenal solo victory, nevertheless it’s good that he got here as much as Pogačar and will get the bonus seconds on the highest,” Kuss mentioned. “On the end, you by no means know who goes forward and takes the stage win.”
When Wout van Aert sat up early on the Grand Colombier on Friday, it appeared clear that the Belgian would play a big half in Jumbo-Visma’s plans on stage 14, and so it proved. After main over the penultimate ascent of the Col de la Ramaz, Van Aert’s day over on the base of the Joux Airplane, however he cruised his method again to the entrance to place in one other, defiant stint on Vingegaard’s behalf.
“I knew that it was Rafal Majka’s plan to drop me and Wilco [Kelderman], however then tempo dropped a bit down and I may battle again,” Van Aert mentioned of the bottom of the Joux Airplane. “We made a extremely arduous day for ourselves, however hopefully for the others too. I hoped Jonas may make a much bigger distinction, however apparently Jonas and Tadej are simply fairly equal for the time being, so chapeau.”
A mass crash within the opening kilometres had seen the race neutralised and paused for nearly half an hour, however Jumbo-Visma rapidly took up the reins on the head of the bunch after the re-start, whittling down the bunch over the Col de Cou and Col de Feu, and sustaining their brisk tempo on the Ramaz.
“The thought was to make the stage as arduous as potential, so we did all of the climbs on a reasonably excessive tempo, to make the race extra appropriate for Jonas and fewer explosive,” Tiesj Benoot defined. “We pulled off the plan to perfection. Jonas didn’t take massive gaps, however he took the bonus on prime of the Joux Airplane and the Tour continues to be lengthy.”
In a video interview on the primary relaxation day, Vingegaard indicated that Jumbo-Visma had a selected plan to interrupt Pogacar’s resolve at this Tour alongside comparable traces to their outstanding volley of assaults over the Galibier a 12 months in the past. The Slovenian and his staff dealt ably to their sustained forcing right here, however one imagines additional questions can be requested on Sunday’s run to Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc and Wednesday’s haul over the Col de la Loze.
“We’re not leaping for pleasure over one second,” Van Aert admitted, although he grinned when requested how Jumbo-Visma may strategy stage 15. “What are we planning tomorrow? You will note then.”