Rodriguez edges by Pogacar, Vingegaard

MORZINE LES PORTES DU SOLEIL, France — Could the Tour de France be decided by time bonuses? Even on the toughest battleground, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and two-time winner Tadej Pogacar could not separate themselves Saturday after a dramatic day in the Alps.

Again in a class of their own, Pogacar and Vingegaard finished second and third respectively at the ski station of Morzine after another fierce fight that concluded a day of attrition in the 14th stage.

The pair was well ahead of their struggling overall challengers at some point in the final ascent, the daunting Col de Joux Plane, but allowed stage winner Carlos Rodriguez to come back as the duo watched each other like track cyclists in a velodrome, waiting for an opening to get the biggest bonus at the top of the steep ascent. Vingegaard won this duel.

Rodriguez, a Tour debutant from Spain riding for Ineos-Grenadiers, then moved away from the pair in the downhill leading to Morzine.

Vingegaard kept the yellow jersey, increasing his overall lead by just one second to 10 seconds after Pogacar sprinted to secure second place in the stage. Rodriguez moved up to third place overall — 4 minutes, 43 seconds behind Vingegaard — after his first Tour stage win.

Rodriguez had trailed by more than one minute but made the most of the pair’s duel to prevail.

“I didn’t think it was possible when I got dropped in the Joux Plane,” he said. “I tried to climb at my own pace to later do the descent as fast as possible. I am a good descender, I wanted to take advantage. I was close to crashing a couple of times … I took some risks.”

Rodriguez became the youngest Spanish stage winner in the race’s history at 22 years, 5 months, 13 days.

Vingegaard amassed a total of 12 bonus seconds for being first at the top of the climb and his thirdplace finish. Pogacar had 11; he was second at the summit and the secondplace finisher.

“It’s going to be really tight,” Pogacar said after the 94-mile stage.

For Pogacar, the gloves were definitely off in the final ascent of the day. Literally. He got rid of them at the start of Joux Plane, the climax of a brutal trek in the Alps featuring no less than five ascents.

Well supported by their super-strong teammates, Pogacar and Vingegaard started to climb in the lead group after the last of the breakaway riders was caught 36 miles from the finish.

Pogacar was the first to attack in Joux Plane and opened a small gap, but Vingegaard paced himself and gradually returned to catch the Slovenian rider from the UAE Team Emirates 1 mile from the top.

Pogacar then tried another acceleration 500 meters from the summit but slowed down as the race motorbikes hampered his move, and he had to cut his effort. His Danish rival from the Jumbo-Visma team then opened the sprint in the final bend before the top and got the eight-second time bonus, with Pogacar awarded five seconds.

The start of the stage was marred by a mass pileup soon after the peloton left the town of Annemasse.

Spanish rider Antonio Pedrero was evacuated by ambulance, and Louis Meintjes, who was 13th overall, abandoned with a suspected broken collarbone. Esteban Chaves, from the EF Education Easypost team, also quit.

Dozens of racers crashed on a bend on a slippery road and many received treatment.

The 111-mile 15th stage to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc on Sunday is another difficult trek with a mountaintop finish before Monday’s second rest day.