Tour de France 2025 Stage 14

July 19, 2025 It might not be the Queen stage but it is the hardest stage profile in the Pyrénées this year. At 182KM, there is an incredible 5,000M of elevation that will push everyone in the race to their limits. Leaving from Pau, the riders have about 70KM of flat to false flat racing before the intermediate sprint in Esquièze-Sère. From there, the road tips up towards the Col du Tourmalet, 18.9KM at 7.4% with the Souvenir Goddet at the top for the first rider to summit. The bunch then descend into Sainte-Marie de Campan where the road drags up the valley to the start of the Col d'Aspin, 5KM at 7.4%. The pattern continues with the Col de Peyresourde next, 7.1KM at 8.1%, topping out 33KM from the finish. One final descent into Bagnères-de-Luchon places the peloton at the foot of Superbagnères, a 12.6KM climb at 7.5%, for a summit finish, the first here since 1989. It's a classic Pyrenean mountain stage, a re-run of the 1989 edition, but the question is whether the GC teams will want to control on such a hard day or will we have two races in one with a break going all the way. Cooler weather moved in but with it came the rain and temperatures forecasted at the top of the Col du Tourmalet were down to 10C (50F). It was not raining when the flag dropped at KM0 but the roads were damp and the riders were pushing to get involved in the attacking. The momentum from the start forced the speed well above 50KM/HR making it very hard for anyone to get a gap. Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek found himself off the front alone with the peloton still bubbling behind. He had 20 seconds at 162KM to go but thought better of the effort and backed his way into the peloton. The race nearly split through Lourdes but it was stitched back together and the attacking continued. Geraint Thomas of Ineos, Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies, and Quentin Pacher of Groupama-FDJ got a gap through Argelès-Gazost and held 30 seconds with 120KM to go. Lidl-Trek took to the front of the bunch and tried to keep the attacking under control for another 7KM until the intermediate sprint in Esquièze-Sère. Toms Skujiņš did all of the pulling and brought back the three leaders. Lidl-Trek had nearly all of their riders in line for the lead out and got Milan there first to take maximum points. Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck followed behind and just a few hundred meters later, the bunch started the Col du Tourmalet. UAE-XRG started to set their pace from the bottom but it wasn't so hard that attacks couldn't keep going. With 15.5KM still to climb however, Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep and third overall dropped away and looked empty after two days of fighting to stay at the front. A few kilometers later, he pulled over to the side of the road and abandoned the race. Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, Einer Rubio of Movistar, and Thymen Arensman of Ineos got away with a relatively large group forming behind. In all, 22 riders escaped from the bunch and they had 1 minute with 10KM to climb. The group had a lot of passengers so Martinez raced away with Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla. Martinez was the stronger of the two and went off alone after about 1KM with O'Connor. Behind, the remaining breakaway started to trim down to around 15 riders. Martinez got into the final 3KM of the climb and entered the mist with spectators crowding in from both sides of the road. At the top, Martinez took the Souvenir Goddet and had a 1 minute 55 second lead on the rest of the break and 3 minutes 30 seconds back to the peloton. The mountains points he collected made him the virtual owner of the classification. Light rain was falling with thick fog on the other side of the mountain and the roads were completely wet as he descended through La Mongie. Martinez had to ride conservatively and by the bottom with 75KM to go, he only had 50 seconds on Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike and Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep and 1 minute 30 seconds on the rest of the break. Martinez went up and over the Col d'Aspin and the groups all maintained their gaps. Martinez took maximum points at the top with 63KM to go, 30 seconds ahead of Kuss and Paret-Peintre. The rest of the break was only 1 minute from being caught by the peloton which crested around 4 minutes after Martinez. Kuss and Paret-Peintre caught Martinez on the descent with 55KM to go and they all worked well to the bottom into Arreau and through tons of cheering fans. In the peloton, UAE-XRG still had control and had trimmed the gap to 3 minutes as the leaders approached the Col de Peyresourde. A distilled chase group formed including Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike, O'Connor, Arensman and Carlos Rodríguez of Ineos, and Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility and were within 1 minute of the leaders. At the start of the Col de Peyresourde with 39KM to go, the race was closing in. The Johannessen group was just 15 seconds behind the lead group and the peloton were at 2 minutes 40 seconds. The two front groups came together and immediatley broke up again. This time, Arensman went clear with Johannessen and Martinez but Arensman was on a mission and went solo with 36KM to go and 3.5KM to the top of the Col de Peyresourde. Arensman took almost 90 seconds out of the chase by the top and started the wet and foggy descent with 32.5KM to go. Arensman descended well and made his way through Bagnères-de-Luchon, starting Superbagnères with 1 minute 35 seconds on the chase and 3 minutes 30 seconds on the peloton. In the bunch, UAE-XRG increased the pace with Marc Soler on a small rise that led into the climb and riders started to drop away, most notably tenth overall Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike. Soler cut the favorites group down to 15 riders but even with the higher pace, Arensman still had 3 minutes 10 seconds on the bunch at the official start of the climb with 12.4KM to go. The chase group was swept up by the peloton leaving just Arensman at the front. The first move from the favorites came from Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R who attacked with 7.5KM to go. He quickly got 15 seconds and continued on but the gap stabilized at 20 seconds. Adam Yates took over as the final man for UAE-XRG in front of Tadej Pogačar. He wound up the pace and reduced the group even further to eight riders with 4KM to go. Under the 4KM to go banner, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike attacked. Pogačar stayed seated and rode his way onto the wheel with Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe hauling his way back as well. Gall was caught in the flurry of activity. Lipowitz dropped when Vingegaard lifted the pace for a second time, all the while Arensman plowed his way forward, still with 90 seconds under the 1KM to go. The win went to Arensman after over 35KM solo. He crossed the line through the mist and deafening noise from the fans beating on the hoardings. Arensman took his first Grand Tour stage win and an important with for Ineos, a team struggling for results and purpose this Tour. Pogačar and Vingegaard rode up the rest of the climb together and it was Pogačar who took the sprint for second place. Vingegaard couldn't hold the wheel and a 4 second gap was recorded on the line as he took third on the day. With Evenepoel out of the picture, most riders in the top 10 moved up a spot. The gap significantly widened today however and the podium may have moved out of sight for some. Lipowitz owns third overall at 7 minutes 53 seconds. Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL sits in fourth at 9 minutes 18 seconds and Vauquelin is fifth at 10 minutes 21 seconds which probably too much for the Frenchman to ask for at this point. There is still a week of racing left however and plenty of hard stages that could shake things up.