Thymen Arensman saved Ineos Grenadiers’ Tour de France, the Dutchman taking a stunning solo win at Superbagnères on Saturday.
Arensman attacked the day’s breakaway just short of the top of the day’s final climb, the Col de Peyresourde, with 36 of the day’s 182.6km to go. The Dutchman quickly built a lead, taking more than two minutes onto the bottom of the Superbagnères climb, the peloton a minute further down.
While attacks form the the GC group saw his advantage decrease, Arensman managed to hold on to take the victory ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in second place, with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in third.
After his second place finish, Tadej Pogačar has increased his lead slightly, putting four seconds and bonus time into Vingegaard.
For Arensman it was a fourth professional victory, but for Ineos Grenadiers it was salvation. The British registered squad used to be the Tour’s most dominant team, winning the general classification on seven occasions between 2012 and ’19. However, Arensman’s win is the team’s first since 2023.
It’s not that they haven’t been trying, they have been aggressive, getting riders in breakaways and trying to dictate stages, but luck has not been with the team during this year’s race. ONly on Thursday’s Hautacam stage they placed half their squad in the huge 50-man breakaway, but were unable to convert their advantage.
With second place already on last week’s stage 10 it was clear he was on the up, and with their leader, Carlos Rodriguez also in the day’s break, he has moved up to 10th overall.
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“I have a stage win at the Vuelta and lot of times [I’ve been]really close in the Giro, but I wanted to experience the biggest race in the world and then to win a stage in my first Tour in this way is unbelievable. Crazy,” Arensman said.
“I had to be really patient because the first week was all really punchy and I had to wait until the mountains, and then the first opportunity I got I was already second on the Mont-Dore stage, so it was already amazing, but it’s unbelievable now. And the way I did it today, but also Carlos in that group he was super strong and he did a really good job for me.
“I heard the gap with the GC group on the Peyresourde and I thought with Tadej and Jonas, three minutes is probably not enough, maybe it’s suicide maybe it’s not. I can’t believe I held them off, I was really fading on the second half of the climb but I think with all the spectators they gave me a few extra watts and I just could hold them off.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
A third consecutive day in the mountains and a third opportunity for Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to take time on his wilting opponents over the 182.6km stage between Pau and Luchon-Superbagnères.
It wasn’t just the hors category climb to the finish at Superbagnères, but the stage contained three other famous Pyrenean climbs, the Col du Tourmalet opening the day after 70km, followed in quick succession by the Cols d’Aspin and de Peyresourde.
The ascent to Superbagnères has not been used at the Tour de France since stage 10 of the 1989 race, when Robert Millar (now Philippa York) winning the last of their three Tour stages, and at an average gradient of 7.3% over its 12.4km it was certainly a finish for the pure climbers.
It was an active start, with plenty of attackers trying their luck, though it was immediately clear that Lidl-Trek were keen to be present at the front. Points classification leader, Jonathan Milan found himself up the road, but with no one willing to go with him soon dropped back to the peloton.
The same happened to former British champion Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), no surprise with the average speed well over 50kph. Despite a series of short-lived attacks, it was not until Milan had taken maximum points at the intermediate sprint that anything stuck, on the early slopes of the Tourmalet.
There, after just a couple of kilometres of climbing, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) was seen drifting off the back, clearly suffering as he had on the two previous days, the Belgian soon abandoning the race.
At the front of the race a large breakaway finally formed, including Lenny Martinez, the Bahrain Victorious rider starting the day in second place of the mountains classification, but wearing the polka-dot jersey on Pogačar’s behalf. The Frenchman was clearly hoping to take the jersey outright, and headed off into the mist alone, eventually taking maximum points on the Tourmalet.
In the 16-man breakaway behind him, Tobias Halland Johannessen was best placed overall, the Uno-X Mobility rider starting the day eighth overall, 10.36 down.
Fog and rain drenched the roads, the descent was treacherous and the chasers split, Valentin Paret Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) heading off in pursuit of the leader, catching him just over the top of the next climb, the Col d’Aspin. Behind them Johannessen’s group was at 2.31 and the GC peloton a further 1.20 back.
The descent saw the chasing group split, Johannessen joinied by Carlos Rodriguez and Thymen Arensman (both Ineos Grenadiers), Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Ben O’Connor (Jayco-Alula) taking 20 seconds out of their erstwhile colleagues.
By the base of the first category Col de Peyresourde, 42km from the finish, UAE had set about reducing the advantage of the leading groups, their deficit dropping below three minutes for the first time. Though without Yates, Johannessen’s group reached the front though they were unable to stay together when Arensman launched his race winning attack.
The Dutchman reached the top of the day’s penultimate climb leading the Martinez and Johannessen group by 1.23, while the peloton had dropped back slightly, reaching the pass 3.33 later.
With 12.4km of the stage remaining, Arenssman reached the bottom of the Superbagnères climb leading Johannessen’s now seven-man group by well over two minutes, but their time was limited, a rampant peloton closing in, Pogačar setting his team to work.
With all but Arensman caught, Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) made his own bid for time, but was caught when, with a touch more than three kilometres to go Vingegaard (Visma-attacked what remained of the GC group, though Pogačar was easily able to follow the wheel, the pair racing to the line, where the yellow jersey won the sprint.
RESULTS
TOUR DE FRANCE, STAGE 14, PAU > LUCHON-SUPERBAGNÈRES (182.6KM)
1. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, in 4:53:35 in 4:53:35
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +1.08
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1.12
4. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1.19
5. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:25
6. Oscar Onley (Gbr) Pinic-PostNL, +2:09
7. Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, +2:46
8. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time
9. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +2:59
10. Kévin Vaquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +3:08
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 14
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 50:40:28
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +4:13
3. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +7:53
4. Oscar Onley (Gbr) Pinic-PostNL, 9:18
5. Kévin Vaquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +10:21
6. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +10:34
7. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +12:00
8. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +12:33
9. Ben Healy (Ire) Ef Education-EasyPost, +18:41
10. Carlos Rodriguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +22:57
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