Andersen takes 14th stage, Roglic still up by 44sec

LYON (France) • Denmark's Soren Kragh Andersen timed his effort to perfection to win the 14th stage of the Tour de France, a 194.5km ride from Clermont-Ferrand yesterday.

The Team Sunweb rider attacked with just under three kilometres to go and never looked back as Slovenian Luka Mezgec took second place and Italian Simone Consonni came home third, both 15 seconds behind.

"I have no words, I feel very emotional. I've dreamed about this but it's hard to say you're good enough until you do it. I'm amazed," Andersen said.

"I had really good legs the whole day but you never know how good the other guys are.

"It took me a long time in the Tour to get confidence in myself. But I knew if I was suffering, then they were suffering."

Slovenian Primoz Roglic retained the overall leader's yellow jersey ahead of today's 15th stage, a 174.5km mountain trek ending up the Col du Grand Colombier.

The Jumbo-Visma leader stays 44 seconds ahead of compatriot and UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar, while defending champion Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers is third, a further 15 seconds behind.

However, 2012 Tour winner Bradley Wiggins claimed that the Colombian was "not done yet" with seven stages left.

Separately, French rider Romain Bardet from AG2R Mondiale yesterday revealed on his Instagram page that he suffered a small haemorrhage, following a concussion that forced him to pull out of the Tour the previous day.

Race chief doctor Florence Pommerie, however, defended the decision to allow him to finish the 13th stage, saying: "You're always a bit dizzy when you crash at 40 or 80kmh.

"We didn't prevent him from racing because he was showing no clinical signs of a concussion."

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on September 13, 2020, with the headline Andersen takes 14th stage, Roglic still up by 44sec. Subscribe