Thymen Arensman achieves victory in Superbagneres on the day Evenepoel says goodbye to the Tour de France

It seemed likely that, after the two extremely tough stages we have experienced in the Pyrenees and the tremendous superiority shown by Tadej Pogacar, the third, one of the queen stages of the Tour de France, was going to be decided among one of those high-level breakaways. And so it happened, but not without a tremendous struggle in the initial part of the stage.

Remco Evenepoel decides to end his suffering in the Tour de France

However, beyond the hard-fought victory achieved by Thymen Arensman, which serves INEOS Grenadier to justify their Tour de France or the complacency that is beginning to reign in the group of favorites when there is still Mont Ventoux and the Alps to come, the news of this stage is the abandonment of Remco Evenepoel, who already suffered immensely in the stage finishing in Hautacam, received the humiliation of being lapped in the time trial climb to Peyragudes by Jonas Vingegaard, and today, after being dropped early on the Tourmalet, he chose to head home, presumably to recover and seek a good preparation for La Vuelta and the World Championships.

Stage 14 that started from one of the traditional venues of the Tour de France such as the city of Pau and faced a no less classic route that tackled the most mythical chain of climbs in cycling with ascents to Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde, and the recovery of a finish that was once common in the Tour, the ascent to Superbagneres.

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The stage featured a long hilly section of about 70 kilometers to the foot of the Tourmalet, a place also chosen by the organization to locate the intermediate sprint, which sparked an intense battle to seek the breakaway and the monumental work of Lidl-Trek to control the race and allow Jonathan Milan to continue adding points for the green jersey. Work to the point of not leaving any unit accompanying Mattias Skjelmose, who suffered a tremendous fall after hitting one of those traffic islands that line the French towns and would force him to abandon a few kilometers later.

Jonathan Milan achieved the objective, beating Van der Poel and Girmay with ease, and from there, the decisive part of the stage with the king Tourmalet began. Attacks to form the breakaway resumed, and soon a numerous group was formed with Arensman himself, Lenny Martinez, Carlos Rodriguez, Sepp Kuss, and up to five Movistar cyclists, including Enric Mas in a necessary change of role after his umpteenth failure to seek a place of honor in the general classification of the Tour de France.

However, the Mallorcan would not be in a position to join the good breakaway as the attacks between those seeking to consolidate the breakaway did not cease. A turbulent river that Lenny Martinez took advantage of to launch himself uphill and seek one of the honors that every cyclist wants to have, the Souvenir Jacques Godet, or in other words, to be the first to crown the Col de Tourmalet, which also meant a good injection of points in the mountain classification for him, allowing him to regain the mountain jersey rightfully.

Almost at the same time, still in the more gentle part of the lower Tourmalet, Remco Evenepoel began to fall in the main group until he was dropped. A face of circumstance and bad gestures towards the cameras trying to echo the surrender of one of the podium contenders up to that point. Finally, the Belgian, completely defeated, put his foot down, putting an end to a suffering that he himself has not been able to explain.

From there, the attention focused on whether the escapees would successfully complete their adventure or, on the contrary, a UAE Team Emirates-XRG that controlled the race at will would leave their leader at the perfect distance to continue accumulating stage victories.

After regroupings, movements, and new regroupings among the escapees, it was Thymen Arensman who managed to evade the surveillance of the rest of the members of the leading group of the breakaway on the climb to Peyresourde to start a path that would ultimately be decisive, allowing him to give INEOS Grenadiers a valuable stage victory.

Meanwhile, behind, a smooth day for a UAE Team Emirates-XRG that controlled the race tempo at will. It was not until 4 kilometers to the finish line that we saw the move from Jonas Vingegaard. As expected, Pogacar responded adequately, and behind them, only Lipowitz managed to hold on. They caught Felix Gall who had made his move a few kilometers earlier, and Tadej Pogacar made a small move, more to say "here I am" than anything else, which only served to drop Lipowitz.

Vingegaard would try again, very timidly, and from there on, it was a steady pace until, in the last meters, Tadej Pogacar accelerated to win the bonus of the second place in the stage and slightly increase his lead in the general classification.

Classification Stage 14

1. Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers) 4h53'35''
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +1'08''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'12''
4. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +1'19''
5. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'25''
6. Oscan Onley (Picnic-PostNL) +2'09''
7. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +2'46''
8. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +2'46''
9. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) +2'59''
10. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +3'08''

Overall Ranking

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 50h40'28''
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4'13''
3. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +7'53''
4. Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) +9'18''
5. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +10'21''
6. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +10'34''
7. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +12'00''
8. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) +12'33''
9. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +18'41''
10. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +22'57''