Stage 14: Annemasse > Morzine les Portes du Soleileil (July 15)

TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 14: Mountain Stage #5

152 km (94 mi) / 4093 m (13,428’)

ANNEMASSE > MORZINE LES PORTES DU SOLEIL

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Letour.fr Stage 14

Official post-race summary for Stage 14 (July 15) - Letour.fr - Stage 14

CARLOS RODRIGUEZ, THE BIRTH OF A CHAMPION

Carlos Rodriguez took advantage of the rivalry between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar to catch them and ride away from them in the downhill of col de Joux-Plane to become the youngest ever Spanish stage winner at the Tour de France at the age of 22. Vingegaard retained the yellow jersey.

MEINTJES, CHAVES AND BARDET ABANDON

The start proper of stage 14 was given to 165 riders at 13.23. The race was put on halt for half an hour after 6.5km due to a massive crash that forced Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) to withdraw from the Tour de France. A second start was given at 14.01. Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) pulled out in pain at km 15 while the first significant breakaway took shape with Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ) being joined by Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) and later by Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana). Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) and James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) crashed out in the downhill of col de Saxel at km 25.

2 CAT. 1 KOM FOR CICCONE

After tons of attempts, attacks, counter-attacks and riders being dropped, a lead group of 21 riders took shape. It included three men from the top 20 overall: Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious). Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) were very active, both interested in the King of the Mountains competition. Ciccone outsprinted polka dot jersey wearer Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Alaphilippe and Pinot at cat. 1 col de Cou (km 35.3). The Italian also crested cat. 1 col du Feu (km 52) first and forged on by himself in the downhill until Pinot, Landa, Alex Aranburu (Movistar) Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) came across. Pinot, Landa, Poels, Martin, Martinez, Ciccone, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Alex Aranburu and Gorka Izagirre, (Movistar), Hugo Houle and Woods (Israel-PremierTech) managed to stay away while Jumbo-Visma kept them on a leash. Ciccone passed the line of the intermediate sprint at col de Jambaz (km 65.5) in first position. Ciccone and Woods rode away at the beginning of the ascent to col de la Ramaz (km 101). Their former breakaway companions got reeled in 10km before the top while the yellow jersey group was down to about thirty riders including six from Jumbo-Visma and six from UAE Team Emirates. Ciccone surrendered two kilometres further. Van Aert crested col de la Ramaz in first position.

VINGEGAARD BEATS POGACAR ATOP JOUX-PLANE

16 riders were reunited at the front with 30km to go: Van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Felix Grossschartner, Rafal Majka, Adam Yates, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Yates, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen). The team of the yellow jersey led the charge up to col de Joux-Plane, the 250th hors-category climb of the Tour de France since the inception of the label in 1979. 5km before the top, Hindley couldn’t hold the pace set by Kuss, the American being followed by A. Yates, Pogacar, Vingegaard and Rodriguez. With 3.7km of climbing remaining, Pogacar attacked. The Slovenian remained 4’’ ahead of the Dane for two kilometres. Vingegaard made it across and sprinted to collect 8’’ time bonus and the lead in the KOM competition atop col de Joux-Plane. Rodriguez and Yates made the junction in the downhill. Rodriguez rode away solo with 8km to go and remained at the front till the end. He even moved one step up to take place in the top 3 instead of Hindley for one second.

STAGE 14 DETAILS AND STATISTICS

• Location: Haute Savoie Region - French Alps
• Distance: 152 kilometers / 94 miles
• Altitude Gained: 4,093 meters / 13,428’
• Percentage Grade:

• 47.4% (72 kilometers/45 miles) descent
• 26.4% (40 kilometers/25 miles)  0-5%
• 23.2 (35 kilometers/22 miles) 5-10%
• 2.7% (4 kilometers/ 2.5 miles) 10-15%

• Steepest:

• 500 meters 11.5% / ¼ mile 11.8%
• 1 Kilometer 10.7% / 1 mile 10.5%

• Highest Point on the Route:  1,676 meters / 5,497’
• Lowest Point on the Route: 471 meters / 1,546’

COMMENTS FROM RACE DIRECTOR CHRISTIAN PRUDHOMME - STAGE 14:

“It’s unlikely that the riders will enjoy the view of Lake Geneva at the start of the stage, as the 4,200 metres of climbing will be on everyone’s mind, and especially the climbs of the Ramaz and Joux Plane passes. Everyone will also aware that they’ll need show some real skill on the descent into Morzine in order to claim victory” (Tour de France Stage 14).

TOP CLIMBS OF STAGE 14 OF THE 2023 TOUR DE FRANCE

Letour.fr Stage 14Letour.fr - Stage 14 

Col de la Ramaz

PJAMM CYCLING INTERACTIVE PROFILE TOOL

Letour.fr - Stage 14

This is the fifth appearance for Col de la Ramaz in a Tour de France Stage since its first appearance in 1981.

Col de Joux Plane 

PJAMM CYCLING INTERACTIVE PROFILE TOOL

Col de Joux Plane has been featured in the Tour de France 13 times since 1978 (twice in 1981 - Stages 17 and 18), but only twice between 2006 and 2023.  Since it came to the tour late, none of the older legends and grainy black and white photographs of earlier days of the Tour (iconic photos like those of of Coppi/Bartali on Galibier, Octave Lapize “assassins” on Tourmalet, Anquetil-Poulidor shoulder to shoulder on Puy Dome, etc.) exist. There is only modern Tour “history” for this wonderful col.  1978 was also the first year Col de Marie-Blanque was featured in the Tour.

The first man over Col de Joux Plane in a Tour de France race was Christian Seznec (“The Jailer”) on July 18, 1978, Stage 17 in 7:13:34, an amazing 09:26 ahead of #2 Paul Wellens and 09:29 ahead of the incomparable Bernard Hinault who went on to win his first of five TdF championships in 108:18:02, 3 minutes 56 seconds in front of the Netherlands Joop Zoetemelk.

Summary of Gradient.