Place Name: Rue De La Crusaz
Address: 50 Rue De La Crusaz, 74110 Morzine, France
Details: Large Alpine stage with five categorized climbs, three of which were first category and one being HC the, Joux Plane. A slight rain came down at KM0 and after 6KM on a small decent, a very large crash occurred, taking down many riders. Louis Meintjes, Antonio Pedrero, and Esteban Chaves abandoned as a result. Race organization neutralized the stage for about 25 minutes. As the stage resumed, Romain Bardet and James Shaw went down in another crash, forcing them to abandon as well. Further along, Jumbo Visma kept pressure high all day and never let the break have more than one minute. Michael Woods, Giulio Ciccone, Thibaut Pinot, Alexey Lutsenko, and Julian Alaphilippe were the driving forces in the break but they were left dangling for much of the day and were eventually caught. The GC group hit the Joux Plane and Pogačar launched with 3.5KM to go. He opened a gap but Vingegaard slowly reeled him back in. The pace dropped off as they were trying to work each over for the time bonus at the top of the climb. Pogačar attacked again but was blocked by motor bikes who were blocked by spectators. Vingegaard took the time bonus as Pogačar seemed unfocused after being blocked. During all of the back and forth, Carlos Rodríguez came back just after the summit, he attacked over the top and got gap on decent to take his first grand tour stage win at only 22 years old. In so doing, moved himself to third overall in GC. Once in Morzine, Pogačar beat Vingegaard in the sprint. After the day, Pogačar and Vingegaard are separated by just ten seconds.
Tags: Tour de France, 2023, July, Stage 14, Tour de France 2023, Annemasse, Morzine, Louis Meintjes, Antonio Pedrero, Esteban Chaves, Romain Bardet, James Shaw, Michael Woods, Giulio Ciccone, Thibaut Pinot, Alexey Lutsenko, Julian Alaphilippe, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar, Carlos Rodríguez,