Thymen Arensman gave Grenadiers' Tour de France a huge lift with a spectacular win on stage 14. The Dutch rider broke away 37 kilometers from the finish and quickly built a lead, taking more than two minutes onto the bottom of the Superbagneres climb. It was an incredible solo effort when Remco Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose withdrew from the Tour.
"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."
-Thymen Arensman
"We had a plan at the start this morning and we achieved it almost 100%. I wanted to take all the points except for the finish, and in the end I didn't manage to get through at the front at Peyresourde, but I still took second place because Arensman managed to break away on his own. I didn't have much left in my legs. I would have loved to win this stage, but I can see that there are more experienced rider who manage to be stronger at the end than at the start of the stage.
In the Tourmalet, I managed not to go into the red, and it was incredible to do that climb alone with the polka dot jersey and all those people cheering me on, Now I have to keep taking as many points as possible in the mountain stages and target the days when I have to put in a big effort."
-Lenny Martinez
"It was a hard day again; with teh break only going on the Tourmalet and then UAE set a hard pace during the stage. It was quite a good pace that Yates let on the last climb and I was hoping that they would do that for as long as possible. It was then basically all-out to the line after Vingegaard attacked and I did what I could. It's one more stage down and one more day closer to Paris but it's still a long way to go and we still have some pretty tough climbs to cover in the Alps next week. I'm continuing to surprise myself. We didn't really come here with any big GC ambitions pre-race, and today was probable the biggest test of my long-climbing abilities in my career so far. It's nice to be in fourth and gain some time on a few guys, but it's a long way to go and a lot can change next week."
-Oscar Onley. Sixth on stage 14, moves up to fourth overall.
"I'm a bit disappointed with today, I wanted more out of it. We were hoping to move in the KOM ranking or go for the stage win. In the end, we did neither. I think I invested too much energy in trying to get into the breakaway on the flat part. By the time we started on Tourmalet, I was already pretty tired. But I still tried, I still gave it my best. The race is definitely not over. I'm happy with how my legs felt today and I think there are still some good opportunities to come!"
-Mike Woods. Chasing the KOMs in fifth place.
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