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Rodriguez wins Alpine stage as Vingegaard retains slim Tour lead / Photo: © AFP
Rodriguez wins Alpine stage as Vingegaard retains slim Tour lead
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.
Ineos rider Rodriguez climbed into third place overall by one second from Jai Hindley with a great climb and daredevil downhill finish.
Vingegaard now leads Pogacar by 10 seconds after winning a war of nerves in the battle for the title.
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 enfuriated 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.
The day was marked by French hope Romain Bardet's race-ending 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.
Ahead of the stage, the series of Alpine descents had put Gino Maeder's recent fatal crash in the Tour of Switzerland firmly in the minds of many in the peloton.
Earlier, after a sudden shower, there was a mass fall on a corner just 5km into stage 14 that forced organisers 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.
The race restarted 24 minutes after the fall.
South African rider Louis Meintjes, 13th overall, suffered a broken collarbone and did not rejoin the race. Spaniard Antonio Pedrero was evacuated on a stretcher and Colombian Esteban Chaves restarted but pulled out ten minutes later.
A. Walsh--BTZ
