Tour de France: Rodriguez victorious after epic Vingegaard-Pogacar duel

Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar sprint to the top of the Col de la Joux Plane during the 15th stage of the Tour de France, on July 15, 2023. BERNARD PAPON / AFP

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard fought off a ferocious attack from Tadej Pogacar on the first of four Alpine tests in the Tour de France on Saturday as Spain's Carlos Rodriguez won stage 14. Vingegaard now leads Pogacar by 10 seconds after winning a war of nerves in the battle for the title.

Ineos rider Rodriguez climbed into third place overall with a great climb and daredevil downhill finish.

On the last of the day's ascents Jumbo's Sepp Kuss took Vingegaard as far as he could before Pogacar's own lieutenant Adam Yates attacked with the Dane isolated. Pogacar then launched his blistering turn of pace and opened a five-second gap only for the Dane to doggedly track and then reel in the exasperated Slovenian with 2km still to climb.

Vingegaard drew level with his younger rival and eyed him, but the latter refused to look back. Pogacar tried again atop the 17km climb to burst past last year's winner but was blocked in the narrow passage of fans by a motorbike carrying a photographer. Instead, Vingegaard then burst ahead and took three bonus seconds atop that last climb. An infuriated Pogacar wasted precious energy racing past his rival in a show of anger.

While all this was going on Rodriguez pulled back and drew level just after the hilltop before dashing off downhill to win the stage itself.

Earlier, after a sudden shower, there was a mass fall on a corner just 5km into stage 14 that forced organizers to halt the race for 25 minutes. Up to 25 riders fell and 50 were blocked with about a third of those who hit the tarmac at 50kph struggling to get back in the saddle.

Romain Bardet crashed twice early in the stage and pulled out. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

French hope Romain Bardet withdrew after a second crash as rain-slicked roads made for treacherous racing. Bardet and English rider James Shaw fell at sped downhill after the day's first climb. A runner-up at the Tour de France and world championships, Bardet had been in 12th overnight and was targeting an overall finish in the top five and a stage win.