When Tadej Pogačar lifted himself from the saddle 550 metres or so from the summit of the Col de Joux Plane on stage 14 of the Tour de France, it should have been clear to everybody on the mountainside that he was preparing to accelerate with the force of a thousand suns. He had done precisely the same thing at more or less the same spot on the Grand Colombier the previous afternoon, after all.
Yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who could sense his rival moving with intent on his shoulder, was certainly braced for impact, but the pair of motorbikes travelling a small distance in front of the two leaders seemed to be completely unprepared for Pogačar’s sudden launch. Their failure to increase their pace when Pogačar attacked meant the Slovenian was forced to brake and desist barely 40m into his effort.
