Date: Saturday, July 19
Distance: 183km
Start location: Pau
Finish location: Superbagnères
Start time: 12:00 CEST
Finish time: 17:07 CEST
This might not quite be the queen stage of the Tour de France — there’s a real monster coming up in the Alps towards the end of the third week that takes that label — but it is certainly the hardest in the Pyrenees. The last of three back-to-back stages spent in the mountain range without any rest in between, the riders must take on 4,950m of elevation gain, more than any other day apart from the queen stage, over the course of 183km, longer than any of the other mountain stages this year.
Most of the mountains to be climbed will be painfully familiar to veterans of the Tour de France, making up the famous Circle of Death summits that have been a feature of the race since its primitive days in the early 20th century. First up is the hardest, highest and most monumental of all, the Col du Tourmalet, the 19km slog averaging 7.4% that’s making its record-breaking 90th Tour appearance; then it's the Col d’Aspin, the ‘easiest’ and shortest of the day at 5km, but still rising at a nastily steep 7.6%; followed by the Col de Peyresourde, the stage’s steepest, averaging 7.8% for its 7.1km. For any riders eying up the polka-dot jersey, this is the day to get into the break and hoover up as many points as possible.
Less familiar is the final climb to the summit finish at Superbagnères, at least to those who weren't around in the 1980s. Back then, it hosted several battles between the great stars of that decade, from Bernard Hinault taking control of the 1979 race ahead of Joop Zoetemelk in a mountain time trial, to Philippa York (then Robert Miller) claiming victory at the summit while Greg LeMond and Laurant Fignon traded blows in their epic and famously close contest in 1989. The most memorable stage here came in 1986, during the tense internal conflict between Hinault and LeMond while they were riding together for La Vie Claire. Hinault began the climb at the front of the race having attacked on the descent of the Tourmalet and continued to lead over the Aspin and the Peyresourde — despite pledging to ride as a domestique for LeMond. Whether Hinault was wearing down LeMond’s GC rivals or out for personal glory was ultimately moot, as the Superbagnères proved a bridge too far and he cracked, being caught and passed by LeMond, and conceding over four minutes to him. Four days later he lost the yellow jersey to the American, who went on to claim overall victory.
Even in this modern era of cycling there’s nobody who can quite compare with Hinault when it comes to panache, so it’s unlikely to see any of the GC contenders try from quite so far out on a day that follows the same sequence of climbs. There could be some early action if a team wants to put the pressure on, but the 12.4km summit finish of Superbagnères, which averages an uneven 7.3% with a few ramps of over 10%, is hard enough for the GC contenders to wait for to make their attacks.
Contenders
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) enters stage 14 as the overwhelming favourite following his dominant performances on stage 12 and 13, where he put time into everyone — can he make it three Pyrenean stage wins from three?
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) remains the second pick for the stage. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) impressed on the first summit finish, and the time trial now looks poised to battle stage five time trial winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) for a place on the Tour podium. Evenepoel is still a strong contender for a top overall finish but has struggled in the last two days.
Lipowitz’s teammate Primož Roglič was resurgent on the TT and is looking to be building into the race. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) will aim to maintain their consistency and secure their positions in the top 10. Meanwhile, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma) looked better on the stage 13 TT than he did the day before.
Scottish rider Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) continues to turn heads in his second Tour, as does Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
Outside the GC battle, riders such as Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and Luke Plapp (Jayco Alula), who impressed in the TT, and others like Enric Mas (Movistar), Ben O'Connor (Jayco Alula), who have dropped down the GC standings, could go in the break as their chances from the peloton are very slim with Pogačar in the form he is in. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) remain focused on collecting points in the polka-dot jersey competition and could make it to the finish if the stage plays out in their favour.
Prediction
We think Tadej Pogačar will get a hat-trick of Pyrenean stage wins at this Tour.
