Stage 14 from Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan/Pla d'Adet will be the first of two days in the high Pyrenees. The stage will end with the Tour’s first summit finish and could see the Tour’s top three riders pull farther away from the rest of the field.
- Date: Saturday, July 13
- Distance: 152km
- Start location: Pau
- Finish location: Saint-Lary-Soulan/Pla d'Adet
Tour de France Results How to Watch
Beginning in Pau, which hosts the Tour de France for the 75th time, the course of Stage 14 winds south, climbing a long false flat through the valley of the Gave de Pau on its way to the day’s Intermediate Sprint in Esquièze-Sère, about 82km into the stage.
With no major obstacles between the start of the stage and the day’s Intermediate Sprint, we could see some sprinters join the day’s early breakaway to try and gain more points in the Tour’s green jersey competition. Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) currently leads Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) by 75 points on the Points Classification, so expect both riders to head up the road to try and win the 20 points available in Esquièze-Sère.
If Esquièze-Sère serves as a sort of mid-race “finish” line for the sprinters, then it’s also the effective “starting” line for the Tour’s climbers. It sits just 500m from the base of the first of three climbs jammed into the final 70km of the stage–and it’s a doozy: the Hors Categorie (“Beyond Category”) Col du Tourmalet.
The Tourmalet is easily the most famous climb in the Pyrenees, probably because it’s one of the hardest. 19km long and with an average gradient of 7.4 percent, the Tourmalet tops out at 2,115m above sea level and will, therefore, be a rude awakening for a peloton that hasn’t climbed anything this long or this high since going over the Col du Galibier at the end of Stage 4.
Any climbers who joined the day’s early breakaway–our money’s on France’s David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) will hit the front of the group on the climb’s lower slopes, hoping to be the first to the top. Twenty points in the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition go to the first rider to the summit, as well as a cash prize called the “Souvenir Jacques Goddet,” which is awarded each year at the top of the highest summit in the Pyrenees and named in honor of the man who directed the Tour de France from 1936 to 1986.
A long descent takes the riders from the top of the Tourmalet down to the base of the day’s second ascent: the Category 2 Hourquette d’Ancizan, the easiest climb of the day. A small group of riders from the breakaway might still be out front by the top of this climb. Still, their gap to the peloton shouldn’t be huge, as Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)–who enters the day wearing the yellow jersey as the Tour’s overall leader and has been pretty insatiable so far in this year’s race–will likely send his team to the front of the bunch in an effort to keep him in contention to win the stage.
The final climb–the Hors Categorie summit finish at the Pla d’Adet ski resort–isn’t as hard as possible. In 2018 and 2021, the race skipped the turn to Pla d’Adet and took the riders all the way up the mountain to the top of the Col du Portet, the highest paved road in the French Pyrenees. (Incidentally, Pogačar won the stage while wearing the yellow jersey in 2021; Vingegaard was second.)
This year, the organizers are taking a more traditional approach, shortening the climb and skipping some of the super-steep pitches higher up the pass. But it's still plenty hard, with a length of 10.6km and an average gradient of 7.9%. The climb’s steepest pitches come on its lower slopes, so we might see another audacious move from Pogačar, who prefers attacking on steeper gradients. The climb eases near the top, but that won’t matter much–Stage 14 will have an explosive finish.
The weather should be perfect for a race through the mountains, with sunny skies and temperatures expected to be in the 70s in the valley–which means even cooler temperatures as the riders climb to the finish. And Sunday is Bastille Day, which means the final climb will be mobbed with “festive” fans out to enjoy the holiday weekend.
Riders to Watch
Stage 14 could prove to be one of the most important GC days in the 2024 Tour de France, with Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) entering the day just 1:06 and 1:14 behind Pogačar on the Tour’s General Classification–and the Tour’s next best rider more than three minutes behind them. By the end of the day, the Tour’s podium could be out of reach of anyone other than these three riders.
For Pogačar, Stage 13 is a chance to shrug off his “mid” performance on Stage 11, when he attacked late in the stage through the Massif Central but was caught by Vingegaard and lost the stage to the Dane after launching what initially looked like a Tour-winning attack just 30km earlier. The Slovenian will likely put his team to work early, keeping the break close and setting a hard tempo for everyone else to follow, hoping to isolate Evenepoel and Vingegaard heading into the final climb.
With Vingegaard getting stronger each day and his team gaining confidence, time is running out for Pogačar to land a knockout punch. If he fails to do so on Stage 14–or worse, he loses time himself–the advantage will continue shifting toward Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike heading into the Tour’s third week.
Vingegaard will likely spend the day covering Pogačar, which can be as effective as attacking him–at least in terms of the current mental battle between the two rivals. Pogačar is clearly holding nothing back at this point in the Tour, and with every response, it’s as if Vingegaard is saying, “That’s all ya got?” If Vingegaard were to attack himself, it would only happen near the top of the climb–if he senses that Pogačar or Evenepoel is struggling. (Now, watching him prove us wrong.)
Speaking of Evenepoel–who enters the stage sandwiched between two riders who have won the last four Tours de France–Stage 14 could prove to be the most pivotal stage of his entire Tour de France.
And he enters the day with bad memories of the area: he cracked terribly during a stage through the Pyrenees in last year’s Vuelta a España. By the time he reached the summit finish on the Tourmalet, the Belgian had lost over 27 minutes–and with it, his chances of defending his title from 2022. The Belgian–who could very well become the target of UAE’s pace-setting–must put those demons behind him on Saturday.
Luckily, with Slovenia’s Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) abandoning the Tour after his crash near the end of Stage 13, the Belgian’s chances of finishing on the Tour’s final podium have increased. He can now ride a bit more conservatively, covering attacks from the other two and riding at his own pace in the event that he’s dropped. With the Tour’s fourth-best rider over three minutes behind the top-3, he has a buffer that he can use to avoid another catastrophic day in the Pyrenees.
How to Watch Stage 14 of the Tour de France
You can stream Stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France on NBC’s Peacock ($5.99/month or $59.99/year). If you’re looking for ad-free coverage, you’ll need a subscription to Peacock Premium Plus, which runs $11.99 per month or $119.99 for the year.
This will be an explosive stage, and you won’t want to miss it. We suggest tuning in at around 9:00 a.m. EDT as the riders hit the base of the Col du Tourmalet. But with the stage finishing about two-and-a-half hours later, that might be too much to ask.
So you could wait until the riders are about midway up the Tourmalet (at about 9:30 a.m. EDT), or as they’re nearing the top of the Hourquette d’Ancizan (at about 10:15 a.m. EDT). But no matter what, make sure you’re watching before the bottom of the final climb, which the leaders should hit at about 10:55 a.m. EDT. You won’t be disappointed.
How to Watch Stage 14 of the Tour de France in Canada
If you live in Canada, you can catch all the action on FloBikes. An annual subscription costs $29.99/month or $150/year.
How to Watch Stage 14 of the Tour de France in the U.K.
UK viewers can watch the Tour de France on ITV4, Eurosport, and Discovery+.
A standard Discovery+ subscription, featuring Eurosport’s cycling coverage, costs £6.99 monthly or £59.99 annually. The premium subscription, which includes all this plus TNT Sports, is available for an extra £29.99 per month.
Since getting hooked on pro cycling while watching Lance Armstrong win the 1993 U.S. Pro Championship in Philadelphia, longtime Bicycling contributor Whit Yost has raced on Belgian cobbles, helped build a European pro team, and piloted that team from Malaysia to Mont Ventoux as an assistant director sportif. These days, he lives with his wife and son in Pennsylvania, spending his days serving as an assistant middle school principal and his nights playing Dungeons & Dragons.
