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Tour de France stage 14: Arensman ends INEOS drought, Evenepoel abandons, race for podium heats up

Photo of Yuliana Hasanah Yuliana Hasanah Send an email Juli 19, 2025
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Tour de France stage 14: Arensman ends INEOS drought, Evenepoel abandons, race for podium heats up

INEOS Grenadiers’ Thymen Arensman won stage 14 of the Tour de France on Saturday, riding solo for the final 37km of a brutal day in the Pyrenees. Behind him race leader Tadej Pogacar added six seconds to his lead over Jonas Vingegaard.

There was no early breakaway today — the positioning of the intermediate sprint at the foot of the Col du Tourmalet meant that Jonathan Milan’s Lidl-Trek team worked tirelessly to keep things together. Milan did at least repay their efforts by scooping up the maximum 20 points, before rapidly heading backwards towards the nervous confines of the grupetto.

The ascent of the fearsome Tourmalet was notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Lenny Martinez darted off, tempted by the king of the mountains points at the top of the HC climb. Like Milan, he completed that mission, was first to the top of the Col d’Aspin too, and is now the outright leader in the competition once more.

Secondly, some riders didn’t even make it to the top of the first climb. Within the space of a few minutes both Remco Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose had abandoned. Evenepoel had struggled in stage 12 and 13 and another night’s sleep had not fixed him. Skjelmose, in contrast, had targeted this stage but crashed into a traffic island early on and despite briefly getting back on his bike, was clearly too injured to continue.

By the time the race reached the day’s third mountain, the Col de Peyresourde, Martinez had been joined up front by Sepp Kuss and Valentin Paret-Peintre, and later by another group which included Simon Yates, Tobias Halland Johannessen and, crucially, Thymen Arensman.

And it was Arensman who attacked and pushed on up the Peyresourde, building a lead on the ascent and extending it on one of France’s fastest descents.

That gave the Dutch rider an advantage of around three minutes as the Tour de France approached Superbagnères for the first time since 1989. It looked like enough of a gap for Arensman to hold on to and give INEOS their first stage win for two years, and so it proved — with Tadej Pogacar largely happy to police Jonas Vingegaard up the final climb, despite the Visma-Lease A Bike rider putting in a couple of attacks.


(Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images)

Jacob Whitehead and Duncan Alexander break down the key moments of the stage.

Find all of The Athletic’s Tour de France coverage here. Or follow Global Sports on The Athletic app via the Discover tab.

Thymen Arensman creates his own history on Superbagnères

The Tour de France likes to play with its own history, and stage 14 — a replica of an iconic stage from the 1986 Tour — was a perfect example. The chance to return to a climb, Superbagnères, which had not been used since 1989, was an invitation to reference historic greats like Greg Lemond, Laurent Fignon and Robert Millar (now Pippa York).

Not all of the talk that surrounds the Tour is gentle nostalgia, though. An underwhelming race for INEOS Grenadiers had been made worse by reports in the Irish and German press this month. These stories concern a longtime Team Sky staff member, who, during the 2012 Tour, allegedly swapped messages with Mark Schmidt, a doctor imprisoned for his participation in the Aderlass doping ring.

But it’s unlikely Arensman was thinking of 1986, 1989 or 2012 as he eked his way steadily up from Luchon to Superbagnères. The 25-year-old had attacked from the front group on the ascent of the Col de Peyresourde, then built that lead on the descent and hung on as the rest of the race developed behind him.


Arensman rides away from his breakaway companions on the Peyresourde (Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images)

The toughest stretch of Superbagnères comes in the closing two kilometres, which led to an unsettling situation where Arensman clearly had enough of an advantage to win, and yet the presence of Pogacar and Vingegaard 90 seconds behind him must have been deeply unsettling. If anyone can have take advantage of a late collapse, it’s them.

But in the end Arensman had enough time in hand to enjoy his career-best achievement. He crossed the line 1:08 ahead of Pogacar, who warmly congratulated him after the stage.

Arensman is only the third Dutch rider to win a mountain top finish in the Pyrenees in the last 50 years, after Tom Dumoulin and Joop Zoetemelk. That’s the sort of history he’ll remember for the rest of his life.

Duncan Alexander

Pogacar plays it safe in difficult conditions

Would Tadej Pogacar go? The kilometres were slipping away, Arensman was riding to the stage win, and if he was to add a fifth victory of this Tour, the Slovenian would have to attack. The day before, he had said he would not give away stages he could win.

But instead, with 4km remaining, and both out of teammates, it was Jonas Vingegaard who attacked. Florian Lipowitz was the first to respond, before Pogacar came off his wheel to comfortably close the gap.

Pogacar then counter-attacked himself with 2.8km left, but it wasn’t his full explosive effort. Nevertheless, he was left on the mountain with Vingegaard. The Dane tried himself once more, but when he was unable to shake the race leader, Pogacar took the opportunity to seize four additional seconds in the final 400m, plus an additional two once the time bonuses for finishing second and third had been processed.

It was another improved performance from Vingegaard, but the gap between the two remains — without a major shift in form, it is difficult to see any reversal when the race reaches Mont Ventoux on Tuesday.


Vingegaard threw a couple of attacks at Pogacar on the final climb (Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP via Getty Images)

After the stage Pogacar was pleased to have got through a treacherous day in the mountains. “When you are riding super hard for two and a half hours already and you come to top of the Tourmalet, you think ‘ah it’s a descent, it’s easy, you can recover’ but then there was really thick fog on the top, plus mist, rain and a slippery road.

“You’re tired but you still need to focus so much on the downhill, it’s so different to when it’s dry and sunny. We went really conservatively on the downhill and we managed great in the end without any stupid mistakes. I think we did a super job.”

Jacob Whitehead

Evenepoel abandon raises questions

Remco Evenepoel had a bottle of water remaining and little else.

Even a small child running next to him was able to keep up with every laboured pedal stroke. The young boy was wearing a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe jersey, the team Evenepoel is set to join from Soudal-Quickstep next season.

The 25-year-old was only halfway up the Tourmalet, but the lights had gone out. The peloton had dropped him, easily, just one kilometre into the climb. He had no power, and at this moment, no will.

Evenepoel handed the child his bottle and got off his bike. The Belgian’s shoulders were embraced by a staff member as he slowly lowered himself into the team car. There was no expression on his face, stung by Pyreneean rain. He simply appeared numb.

These last three days will take some reckoning and self-reflection. Dropped before the Hautacam on stage 12, overtaken on a time trial on stage 13, and finally left, alone on a mountainside, by the pitilessness of stage 14. The first two days may have been explained by an aversion to heat. But this failure, so early on the Tourmalet, was shocking.

Back at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, where he lost 27 minutes on one stage, Evenepoel stayed at the race, eventually winning a stage and the mountains jersey. Having entered with aspirations of even winning the race, Evenepoel could bring himself to do the same at this year’s Tour.


Evenepoel was struggling from the very start of stage 14. (Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images)

According to his team, Evenepoel was not suffering from any sort of injury. He abandoned the race because he was simply so far off the level he expected. A serious winter training crash had dented his top end speed — but the last two weeks have shown how his base has been affected too.

“Very bad day, but giving up is not in my nature,” he had posted on social media the night before. “We stand together and we fight together.”

Intent is one thing but doing is another. Evenepoel was a broken figure on the bike.

“He didn’t feel the best, you hope things turn on the road and they didn’t turn,” said Evenepoel’s directeur sportif Tom Steels after the stage.

“He didn’t have the legs to suffer, so I think it’s wiser not to continue, and to recover well. He still has some goals in the season, maybe if he continued the Tour, the rest of the year would be lost. You have to be careful not to go over the limit, otherwise you lose months not days.”

Jacob Whitehead

The race for the podium heats up

Everybody, take one step forward. Evenepoel had been in third by over seven minutes — but he was still in third place. His absence sweeps the battle for the podium open — any of the contenders would be an intriguing story.

Florian Lipowitz was not meant to perform this well. With the 24-year-old initially brought to the race as a superdomestique for Primoz Roglic, the German has appeared the third-best climber in the race so far — backing up his third-place finish in last month’s Criterium du Dauphine.

What’s more, he was an afterthought in Red Bull’s impending signing of Evenepoel — but will have comfortably outperformed his future team leader. A Tour podium is proof of his worth — whether that future lies at Red Bull, or elsewhere remains to be seen.


Florian Lipowitz is now up to third place and in the white jersey of best young rider (Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images)

He is now the favourite for third after finishing fourth on the stage — initially the only man able to go with Pogacar and Vingegaard. He only began training seriously aged 19 after switching from biathlon.

“I never thought that I could be up there when it came to the Tour,” he said. “It’s my second Grand Tour and I’ve been cycling for only five and a half years, so if someone would have told me this five years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

His teammate, Primoz Roglic, is still in the hunt himself, having told The Athletic last month: “I want to come to Paris, cross the line after all these years, and say, ‘Oh, well, long time no see, hey?’” Together, the pair will make a formidable duo — Lipowitz is 7:53 back from Pogacar, while Roglic is at 10:34.

“We will do our best with the team,” said Roglic, asked if he would support Lipowitz. “But first we need some more big mountains.”

In fourth is Scotland’s Oscar Onley, enjoying a breakout Grand Tour, and earning his Picnic-PostNL team valuable points in their fight against relegation. The Dutch squad are now all but safe — which will make their battle to keep the 22-year-old talent easier. He is just one minute and 25 seconds away from Lipowitz.

In fifth is Kevin Vauquelin — a Frenchman bidding to become the first home rider on the podium since Romain Bardet in 2017. An outsider, who was not fancied as an elite climber, he has doggedly hung on in stages, never blowing up despite shipping time. The most natural attacker of the three by far, expect him to gamble in the Alps after losing 1:43 to Lipowitz on the stage.

Each of Onley, Vauquelin, and Lipowitz are eligible for the white jersey too — with Lipowitz seizing it from Evenepoel after the Belgian’s withdrawal.

The quartet are now separated on GC by just two minutes and 41 seconds.

Jacob Whitehead

Alaphilippe keeps his insulation old school

The range of wet-weather gear that cyclists have available to them in 2025 is vast. The billowing rain jackets of the 1980s and 1990s are long gone, now there is a well-performing item of clothing for almost every condition riders are challenged with.

So while the peloton would have welcomed the cooler temperatures on the ascent of the Tourmalet, the summit presented an age-old apparel problem. Wreathed in clouds and moisture, the descent was going to be chilly, and most riders were duly handed a gilet or rain jacket either directly by their team car or by a teammate on distribution duties.


The conditions on Saturday only increased the difficulty of the stage. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP via Getty Images)

But Tudor Cycling’s Julian Alaphilippe decided to take a much more old-fashioned approach, yanking half of a home-made cardboard sign out of a fan’s hands and folding it into his jersey.

For decades riders used to grab newspapers from supporters’ arms at the top of climbs to use as insulation on cold descents. Of course, fewer people carry newspapers with them in the smartphone era, so perhaps Alaphilippe’s cardboard contrivance could catch on.

Or maybe not. Because if the Wout van Aert fan on the Tourmalet was at least satisfied that their sign had gone to good home, it wasn’t long before the French star swapped his makeshift wind barrier for a team-issue gilet.

Duncan Alexander

Stage 14 top 10

  1. Thymen Arensman (4:53:35)
  2. Tadej Pogacar (+1m 8s)
  3. Jonas Vingegaard (+1m 12s)
  4. Felix Gall (+1m 19s)
  5. Florian Lipowitz (+1m 25s)
  6. Oscar Onley (+2m 9s)
  7. Ben Healy (+2m 46s)
  8. Primoz Roglic (+2m 46s)
  9. Tobias Halland Johannessen (+2m 59s)
  10. Kevin Vauquelin (+3m 8s)


(Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images)

Overall top 10 after stage 14

  1. Tadej Pogacar (50:40:28)
  2. Jonas Vingegaard (+4m 13s)
  3. Florian Lipowitz (+7m 53s)
  4. Oscar Onley (+9m 18s)
  5. Kevin Vauquelin (+10m 21s)
  6. Primoz Roglic (+10m 34s)
  7. Felix Gall (+12m 0s)
  8. Tobias Halland Johannessen (+12m 33s)
  9. Ben Healy (+18m 41s)
  10. Carlos Rodriguez (+22m 57s)

What’s coming up tomorrow?

Stage 15, Sunday July 20: Muret — Carcassonne, 169km, hilly

The final stage before the second rest day is hilly enough for breakaway specialists to have marked this as a potential opportunity. The finish in Carcassonne will be hot, and could be windy, too.

For more cycling, follow Global Sports on The Athletic app via the Discover tab

(Top photo: Getty Images)



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Photo of Yuliana Hasanah Yuliana Hasanah Send an email Juli 19, 2025
0 10 minutes read
Photo of Yuliana Hasanah

Yuliana Hasanah

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