Tadej Pogačar was better than ever on the Tour de France Stage 14 with UAE Team Emirates pacing hard all day for their leader. Pogačar dropped Jonas Vingegaard on the steep Pla d’Adet gradients, winning his 13th stage in the Tour and extending his already large lead in the general classification.

It was the first big mountain day in the 2024 Tour de France with Col du Tourmalet from the 2019 Tour side where Thibaut Pinot won, Hourquette d’Ancizan and Pla d’Adet. The final climb was way harder than the 10.58 km of 7.99% gradient indicates, as the final three kilometres were shallower and included a flatter section, while the first part was loaded with steep sections.

UAE Team Emirates were pacing hard for another possible stage win, despite Pogačar losing to Vingegaard on the previous Puy Mary mountain stage in an uphill sprint. Nils Politt did impressive work as he pulled practically all alone on the Tourmalet and lost only 3:40 min to Thibaut Pinot’s winning time in the 2019 Tour. The riders in the peloton pushed 5.60 ᵉW/Kg for 54:50 min. Thanks to Marc Soler, the tempo was also high on the irregular Hourquette d’Ancizan that followed, spelling the end of the breakaway and Ben Healy’s hopes. Derek Gee before the final climb had spent already 3,689 kilojoules for 3:34h at 15,08 kj/kg/h. A very intense stage as the long climbs were ridden fast and the vast majority of the elevation gain was in the last 75km of the stage.

Pavel Sivakov and Joao Almeida pulled the first part of Pla d’Adet, setting a high tempo before Adam Yates’ surprise attack. Pogačar told the Brit to attack and he launched with 7.1 km to go. Yates was closing down on the last breakaway survivor Ben Healy, who was strong but unlucky for him, UAE Team Emirates had different plans.

Matteo Jorgenson was pulling in the GC group for Jonas Vingegaard to hold a high tempo, while Yates extended his lead to 30 seconds. Everyone knew Pogačar would attack and he accelerated with 4.5 km to go, dropping everyone and bridging to Yates in less than 40 seconds. Yates did not pace Pogačar for long, as the Slovenian was looking very strong and could ride faster himself. Vingegaard dropped Evenepoel with 3.7 km to go, but he was losing time to the Slovenian, particularly in the last three kilometers as the gradients became shallower.

It is possibly the UAE superstar’s greatest climbing performance of all time and maybe the best in the 21st century, considering the moderate altitude and stage difficulty. Pogačar did 6.85 ᵉW/Kg for 27:50 min, which is above the All-Time Top 30 trend-line. For sea level normalised, it is 7.16 ᵉW/Kg. Pogačar beat Lance Armstrong’s 2001 and Tony Rominger, Miguel Indurain and Zenon Jaskula’s 1993 times by around two minutes. When comparing to other top performances this century, Pogačar on Pla d’Adet was slightly more impressive than Contador’s 2009 Verbier and Basso’s 2006 Monte Bondone efforts. The biggest knock on Basso’s Monte Bondone performance was that it was after a flat stage, whilst Contador’s Verbier performance when adjusted for altitude and the higher intensity of the Tour de France 2024, falls slightly below this Pla d’Adet.

Jonas Vingegaard despite showing one of the best performances lost 39 seconds with 6.67 ᵉW/Kg for 28:29 min. Everyone in the GC group performed at a high level. Even Simon Yates who has lost 24 minutes in the previous stages. He pushed 6.36 ᵉW/Kg for 29:23 min, which is 6.65 ᵉW/Kg normalized power for sea level and one of his better climbing performances. Yates finished 13th, losing 93 seconds to Pogačar.

With a huge 197-kilometre mountain stage coming on Stage 15 with more climbing and the Plateau de Beille finish, it will be interesting to see the tactics and climbing performances on after a historic stage on Pla d’Adet.

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It seemed that after a strong effort on Puy Mary Tadej Pogačar had won the Tour de France on Stage 11 but his arch nemesis Jonas Vingegaard bridged to the UAE superstar on Col du Pertus climb with a huge effort and shocked everyone in the last sprint for the stage victory.

With 4,177 metres of vertical gain and multiple 10-15 minute climbs at the end, it was a perfect day for UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogačar to test the legs of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič after an easy sprint stage after the rest day. The UAE Team Emirates riders did not allow a breakaway to form for a long time, which meant that it would be a huge GC day, with UAE going all out early. Santiago Buitrago spent 3,617 kilojoules for 4:05h before Puy Mary, which is 14.76 kj/kg/h. Another hard kilojoule intensive stage in the Tour.

After Pavel Sivakov had finished his turn on the shallow part of Puy Mary, 2024 Basque Country winner Juan Ayuso could not deliver and only pulled for a few seconds when the gradients kicked up. Adam Yates, who had already lost almost 5 minutes in the GC and was fully committed to working for Pogačar in the previous stages, did a huge five-minute pull, shredding the GC group in pieces. His teammate Joao Almeida did not even hit the wind when he was distanced on the steep 10-15% gradients on Puy Mary.

Pogačar attacked near the top of Puy Mary with 31 km to go and immediately distanced everyone as Vingegaard, Roglič and Evenepoel tried to pace themselves and did not even attempt to jump on his wheel. The Slovenian did Puy Mary in exactly 14 minutes with 6.81 ᵉW/Kg, but the effort was more impressive as the first part of the climb was shallow and paced by Pavel Sivakov. Jonas Vingegaard lost 5 seconds to Pogačar on the climb, while Roglič and Evenepoel lost 13 and 27 seconds. The record for the full Puy Mury was not broken as Pogačar and Roglič in the 2020 Tour pushed 6.93 ᵉW/Kg for 13:52 min when the climb was used as a mountain top finish after a tough and intensive stage.

Pogačar on the steep section of Puy Mary averaged 7.50 ᵉW/Kg for 7:23 min, while Vingegaard was distanced with 7.41 ᵉW/Kg. The steep section was 12 seconds faster than in the 2020 edition. This effort alone is very impressive, with Pogačar going all out in the last two minutes of the climb and pushing way higher than 7.50 ᵉW/Kg to drop Vingegaard who prefers longer efforts.

Pogačar gained significant time on the descent on Vingegaard who was joined by Roglič and later caught by Evenepoel, Rodriguez, Almeida, Ciccone and Yates. It seemed that Pogačar would not be caught, but Vingegaard was flying on Col de Pertus, dropping all of his rivals and closing the 30-second gap to the race leader.

Vingegaard did a shockingly great performance after being dropped on Puy Mary. The Dane pushing 7.25 ᵉW/Kg for 12 minutes, while Pogačar was still strong with 6.93 ᵉW/Kg for 12:30 min, which would be enough against Giro d’Italia competition with 3rd and 4th tier GC riders but not enough against the defending Tour de France winner. Vingegaard possibly did not go completely all out on Puy Mary as for some time Roglič was with him on the climb, and he did his own pace as there was a lot of climbing left in the stage. Evenepoel and Roglič on Petrus lost 48 seconds to Vingegaard with 6.65 – 6.67 ᵉW/Kg, while Carlos Rodriguez group went much slower with two UAE Emirates riders in the wheels, averaging 6.22 ᵉW/Kg. Mikel Landa made a huge effort to catch Rodriguez’s group, pushing 6.48 ᵉW/Kg for over 13:06 minutes. Felix Gall even did 6.50 ᵉW/Kg but he did not catch them and lost around 30 seconds at the top.

Vingegaard and Pogačar worked together on the final shallow climb. The Slovenian was a favourite to win another sprint with the Dane leading him out in the final kilometre but surprisingly Pogačar had spent too much energy and had nothing left, losing a slight uphill 20-second sprint. Evenepoel and Roglič lost 25 seconds, with the Red Bull-Bora-Hangrohe leader getting the same time in the finish as he crashed in the last 3 kilometres on a sharp corner. Despite a tough day, Rodriguez’s group lost less than two minutes to Vingegaard. Ayuso finished 4:39 min back, and now he is behind Adam Yates in the GC in the 9th position.

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Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates dominated on the intensive Col du Galibier stage, with the Slovenian taking the yellow leader’s jersey and his 12th Tour de France stage victory at age 25.

It was the first real mountain test in the Tour de France. Usually, a high-altitude stage with the Col du Galibier downhill finish would be expected to be included in the second or third week of the Tour. UAE Team Emirates controlled the stage perfectly and did not allow the 17-man breakaway to gain more than three minutes. Oier Lazkano and David Gaudu were the strongest riders from the break, but as they could not work well together and attacked each other even when they had zero chance of surviving.

Nils Politt, Tim Wellens and Marc Soler were used as domestiques for the lower gradients on Col du Galibier with Pavel Sivakov being the first to pull on the steep part of the climb, which was 8.59 km at 6.79%. The shallow part was only 5% and the peloton averaged 26.7 km/h, so the GC riders pushed only 5.35 ᵉW/Kg for 20 minutes and the headwind made it easier to stay in the group. Ben Healy before the steep part of Galibier spent 2,871 kilojoules for 2:59h at 15.19 kj/kg/h. It was a very intensive and hard day as the peloton spent much time above 1,000–2,000 metres above sea level. When Pavel Sivakov started to pull on the steep section, good World Tour climbers like Simon Yates, Tom Pidcock and race leader Richard Carapaz began to drop early.

After Sivakov it was Adam Yates’ turn to pull followed by a UAE Team Emirates TTT up Galibier with Joao Almeida and Juan Ayuso switching in the front. Yates dropped from the group after his job was done while Ayuso and Almeida were probably thinking about their own GC and not sacrificing completely as it was possible to see them discussing at the front who should take over. UAE reduced the GC group to eight riders: Pogačar, Almeida, Ayuso, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Landa, Roglič and Rodriguez. If Ayuso and/or Almeida had not stopped for a brief moment, Roglič and Landa possibly also would have been dropped, as they were struggling at the back of the group.

Pogačar attacked late on the climb with 800 metres remaining. Vingegaard almost closed him but cracked near the top and lost a few seconds. Pogačar averaged 6.28 ᵉW/Kg for 20:48 min on Galibier and improved Nairo Quintana’s 2019 record by 1:33 min. Pogačar could have gone faster if UAE paced it better and there was not a headwind, but it was still an impressive effort at a high altitude. For the whole climb, Pogačar averaged 5.80 ᵉW/Kg for 42 minutes. Vingegaard lost seven seconds at the top with 6.24 ᵉW/Kg, while Remco Evenepoel was the third-best climber, losing 14 seconds to Pogačar. Ayuso, Almeida, Landa Roglič and Rodriguez crossed the top together, losing 38 seconds in 800 metres. Ayuso and Almeida pulled on Galibier each for around two kilometres.

The shallow descent favoured Pogačar over Vingegaard, who improved his gap to the Dane. Vingegaard was later caught by the following group. Pogačar won the stage by 35 seconds and earned 18 bonus seconds at the top and finish, becoming the new GC leader. Evenepoel after getting passed on the descent by Roglič, Rodriguez and Ayuso finished second. Despite losing 45–50 seconds to Pogačar, Evenepoel and Vingegaard performed well on such a stage with their preparation due to the horrible Basque Country crash and the Tour de France definitely is not over as previous editions have shown.

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UAE Emirates again dominated on a mountain test in the final Tour de Suisse stage with Joao Almeida winning the final stage but Adam Yates securing the overall win.

There was a slight tailwind on the climb. After the flat section, the riders changed a time-trial bike for a road bike, which cost an average of around 15 seconds and 0.08 ᵉW/Kg on the climb. Every kilogram cost around 18 seconds on the Villars Sur Ollon. Adam Yates had a 31-second lead over his teammate Joao Almeida before the time trial. They both had performed on every mountain stage in the Tour de Suisse and pushed high watts also for the fifth day in a row.

UAE star climbers set almost the same time on the climb, Almeida being two seconds faster than Yates. Almeida did Villars Sur Ollon with 6.75 ᵉW/Kg for 25:11 min, while Yates averaged 6.74 ᵉW/Kg. They both did a huge negative split. In the final 3.1 kilometres, Almeida pushed 7.19 ᵉW/Kg for 7:54 min, while Yates averaged 6.98 ᵉW/Kg for 8:06 min.

Other top finishers Mattias Skjelmose, Matthew Riccitello and Tom Pidcock paced the climb evenly. At the same time, Lenny Martinez did a negative split with 6.80 ᵉW/Kg, while doing the full climb at 6.53 ᵉW/Kg. Riccitello, Pidcock, Skjelmose and Martinez performed well on a mountain time trial, while on bigger mountain days they might lose on average more ᵉW/Kg before the climb due to fatigue than their rivals. Egan Bernal lost 69 seconds and his podium position in the GC to Skjelmose, pushing 6.30 ᵉW/Kg.

As expected, the riders could not push as high watts as in the shortened stage 6. Almeida was the fastest in the time trial, while Yates won his fourth World Tour stage race title after winning UAE Tour, Catalunya and Romandie in the previous seasons.

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UAE-Emirates continue to dominate this year’s Tour de Suisse with another win up a climb, this time Adam Yates and Joao Almeida finishing arm-in-arm, with Almeida agreeing that his British teammate could take the victory.

After three high ᵉW/Kg days, it was another mountain top finish up Villars-Sur-Ollon. DSM -firmenich PostNL climbing talent Oscar Onley spent 2,355 kilojoules for 2:41h with 15.64 kj/kg/h. It was a very intense but short day. This time, INEOS paced the climb with Ethan Hayter and Brandon Rivera until the UAE stars attacked. With 3 km to go, Joao Almeida launched with Adam Yates, Wilco Kelderman and Matthew Riccitello following. But both UAE climbers again were the strongest, dropping everyone and riding a team time-trial in the last kilometres of the climb.

The ᵉW/Kg might have been higher, but Yates and Almeida did not need extra time in the GC before the Villars-Sur-Ollon mountain time trial, as they have gained enough of a gap in the previous climbing stages. Adam Yates and Joao Almeida averaged 6.44 ᵉW/Kg for 23:05 min on the climb. Matthew Riccitello had another strong performance at WorldTour level, finishing third with 6.36 ᵉW/Kg for 23:19 min. Kelderman, Skjelmose, Onley, Pidcock and Bernal were in the following group, averaging 6.33 ᵉW/Kg.

Yates has a 31-second gap over Almeida and 1:51 min over the closest non-UAE rider, Bernal. The gap might be enough for Yates to secure the overall win in tomorrow’s mountain time trial, but Almeida might perform better tomorrow for the stage win. Bernal has a 59-second lead over Skjelmose and likely will remain on the podium.

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Pello Bilbao won the queen stage of Tour of Slovenia after his teammates from Bahrain-Victorious paced on the final climb. The battle for the stage win was fierce with British climber Paul Double being active, but the more experienced climber Bilbao was faster in the small group sprint.

Without Tadej Pogačar or Primož Roglič on the startlist there was no big favourite for this year’s Tour of Slovenia, which meant multiple riders could win the queen stage on the Krvavec climb (8.1 km, 8.79%). The stage was long but raced at low intensity, Uno-X Mobility climber Tobias Halland Johannessen spent 2,404 kilojoules before the climb for 5:04h with 11.57 kj/kg/h.

The steep part of the climb ended with 4 km to go, which meant it would be hard to get a gap in the GC group before the final steep pinch. The Bahrain-Victorious team were pacing for their leader Pello Bilbao, who finished 3rd in the UAE Tour and 6th in Basque Country in 2024 and was one of the strongest climbers on the startlist. Bilbao started pulling with 4.5 km to go after his teammate Edoardo Zambanini was done. The pace was high enough to drop Jhonatan Narvaez and Ben Healy, but the group remained quite big on the top of the steep segment.

Pello Bilbao did 6.06 ᵉW/Kg for 24:54 min on the Krvavecem climb. Giovanni Aleotti, Domenico Pozzovivo, Paul Double, Steff Cras and Pablo Castrillo lost only a few seconds at the top, averaging 6.01 – 6.03 ᵉW/Kg. The performances were not the best compared to other races, despite the UAE, INEOS, Bahrain, Bora-Hangrohe and other World Tour teams bringing a decent start list.

In the end, Bilbao won the stage on the last steep part with his strong sprint. 27-year-old Paul Double was close to his first pro victory but finished second, despite attacking from the first group at the end. Double was not selected for the Polti Kometa Giro d’Italia team but his performances in Giro d’Abruzzo, Tour of Turkey and Tour of Slovenia should attract WorldTour team interest for 2025. Italians Aleotti, Pellizzari and Pozzovivo finished from 3rd to 5th position.

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Demi Vollering and Gaia Realini were the strongest climbers in the Tour de Suisse stage 1, attacking on Villars-Sur-Ollon early and doing their season best efforts.

The opening stage of Tour de Suisse Women started with the Villars-Sur-Ollon (7.3 km, 8.1%) climb, where the mountain time trial will take place tomorrow. The peloton opened with the first climb of the stage Col de la Croix with 4.84 ᵉW/Kg for 14:20 min.

After winning three WorldTour stage races in a row in Spain, Demi Vollering returned even stronger. As usual, she did not have the best team support from SD-Worx as she is leaving the Dutch super team after this season. European Champion Mischa Bredewold paced at the start, then FDJ and Vollering started setting her own pace with 5.3 km to go. Gaia Realini counter-attacked and worked together with the reigning Tour de France winner, with Realini even doing more work. Later Vollering dropped Realini with a strong attack and with 1.4 km to go caught Elissa Chabbey from the breakaway.

Vollering did the best performance of the season in women’s cycling, pushing 5.50 ᵉW/Kg for 26:36 min. Realini with her probably the strongest effort yet averaged 5.44 ᵉW/Kg, losing only 22 seconds to Vollering. Elisa Longo Borghini and Kim Cadzow were the next fastest riders from the peloton with 5.24 – 5.26 ᵉW/Kg and losing around a minute. Labous, Bunel, Žigart and Bradbury did 5.19 ᵉW/Kg for 27:53 min. Like in the men’s Tour de Suisse this week, the women are setting their best performances or close to that.

Elise Chabbey finished 3rd from the breakaway and averaged 4.95 ᵉW/Kg for 30:06 min. She had a 2:44 min lead before the climb, but even with close to pushing 5 ᵉW/Kg, it was not enough to hold back Vollering and Realini. Tomorrow in the mountain time trail we might see even bigger numbers from the riders.

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