LUCHON-DE-BAGNERES, France (Velo) — Visma-Lease a Bike threw everything and the kitchen sink at Tadej Pogačar to try one more time to blow up the Tour de France, but it was the yellow jersey nemesis who gained more time.
Everything was textbook in the Tour’s queen stage for the Killer Bees: Sepp Kuss and Simon Yates attacked over the fearsome Col du Tourmalet to slot in as satellite riders. Jonas Vingegaard threw in a few haymakers on the final HC summit.
But Pogačar, surrounded by his UAE Emirates-XRG henchmen, was largely unfazed and closed out three gruesome stages across the Pyrénées to leave Visma’s master plan to win this Tour in tatters.
“Jonas is the second best in the race right now, and we have to live with that, and we have to be proud of that,” Visma sport director Grischa Niermann told Velo.
“Jonas was good. He attacked a few times, but in the end, Tadej was the strongest, and that’s what we expected.”
That’s far from capitulation from the Killer Bees, but also it’s simply accepting the obvious after nearly two full weeks of racing. Vingegaard will leave the Pyrénées tomorrow at 4:13 back.
To end the stage third and lose more time — six more seconds to be exact — and see Matteo Jorgenson tumble out of the top-10 is just salt added to the wound.
‘One of hardest mountain stages I’ve ever done’
Anything can happen, but Visma knows the hole keeps getting deeper.
Vingegaard tried to attack, but Pogačar patiently marked his wheel, and finally he darted clear in the closing meters to take second.
“I can be happy with how my legs are feeling today. It was one of the hardest mountain stages I’ve ever done,” Vingegaard said. “To do that at the end of such a day I can be satisfied.”
Vingegaard confirmed that Yates and Kuss had freedom to chase the stage win, but both were gapped when Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked to win.
UAE upped the pace, but Pogačar never countered Vingegaard’s accelerations on the final summit.
“I expected Tadej to go on the last climb because they sped up on the second-to-last climb, but when I realized he would not, I decided to go myself,” Vingegaard said. “It was a hard. Five hours in the saddle.”
#TDF2025| Stage 14
⛰️ LUCHON – SUPERBAGNÈRES (12.37 km, 7.49%, 927 m)
Jonas Vingegaard
• 33:10
• 6.15 w/kg (est. “60kg” standard)
• 1677 m/h VAM
• 22.38 km/hBoth Pogačar and Gall averaged 6.12 w/kg (est.) due to the different draft
Getty Images pic.twitter.com/FkuT6cWw9H
— Watts in Cycling (@WattsinCycling) July 19, 2025
Pogačar also admitted the fatigue is setting in, perhaps a ray of hope for Visma.
“Once I shut down his two moves, I realized I didn’t have the firepower to counterattack and go all in to the finish,” Pogačar said. “This is why I chose to control the stage, stay on his wheel and then sprint at the finish.”
Yates, Kuss come up short
Confirmed stage-winners Kuss and Yates both rode into the day’s big group, and Kuss was in pole position coming into the day’s penultimate climb.
Suddenly, both floated out of the lead and settled in with the GC group, but that was not part of the plan. Niermann confirmed to Velo he did not call them off the attack.
“The legs weren’t feeling great. The Tour de France is the hardest race in the world, sometimes that’s how it goes,” Yates said. “UAE has the race under control, so there’s no need to be overly aggressive.”
Kuss also said he didn’t have great legs, but with UAE dominating the pace of the race, Visma might be shifting to stage-hunting mode.
“No, I just ran out of legs there in the end,” Kuss said. “We all have our chances on stages that suit us, so it doesn’t hurt to have some guys in the break. The race is in [UAE’s] hands, the margins are quite big. Right now it’s a bit more following, but we’ll see after the rest day.”
Jorgenson slips out of top 10
Jorgenson slipped out of the top 10 and will pivot into stage-hunting mode to close out a three-day trilogy across the Pyrénées.
He dropped from 10th to 15th, now 32:09 back after losing the wheel in Saturday’s monster stage.
The Idahoan didn’t speak at the summit because he was hauled away for a post-stage doping control, but Niermann denied reports that the time loss was intentional.
“It’s not a deliberate choice to lose so much time, but he felt like he could not be up there with the best riders,” Niermann told Velo. “We decided it will be better to let go. He’s feeling OK, but today he felt like he couldn’t be up there.”
Pogačar thinks Vingegaard is far from beaten
Tadej Pogačar is expecting Jonas Vingegaard to come out firing in the final week of the Tour de France in the Alps.
Sprint Cycling
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#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/rXyUzRwcZl— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 19, 2025
Niermann admitted that Jorgenson — who was hoping to better his eighth overall last year — will now have more room to chase a stage win since he’s no longer a top-10 threat to riders and teams chasing a strong GC going into the third week.
“For Matteo, a stage win would mean a lot more than a top 10. He’s riding well and he’ll be motivated in the stages to come. We’ll keep trying,” Kuss said. “The GC is priority, but in hard stages like this it doesn’t hurt to be up the road.”
For Visma, Sunday’s transition stage will put the Pyrénées in the rearview.
The three brutally hard climbing stages were meant to be favorable terrain for Vingegaard, but Pogačar flipped Visma’s script.
Mont Ventoux and two more summit finales loom in the French Alps, including the Col de la Loze where Vingegaard cracked Pogačar in 2023.
Is there hope?
“We will have a new assessment on the rest day and we will make our plan for the final week,” Niermann said.