This was the Tour’s final weekend in the Pyrenees before heading to the Alps. The Tour de France race director has said that in his mind, the Pyrenees and the Alps are what define the Tour de France. And, as you’ll read in this Tour de France stage 13-14 recap, there was a lot of GC action in the Pyrenees that really may have defined the Tour de France. To go with the Tour’s journey through the French Pyrenées, which border Spain, I created a traditional French dish that feels very Spanish: Poulet Basquaise.

Stage Recap

Stage 13

The final time trial of the Tour was a mountain time trial. It was very short at 10.9 km in length, but had a steep and challenging climb (classified as a Category 1 climb!) up Peyragudes. This climb famously appears in the opening sequence of Tomorrow Never Dies – an old James Bond movie.

There were a lot of interesting choices riders made on their bike set ups. Many opted for road bikes that are lighter, for climbing, instead of the heavier time trial bike. Beyond bike set ups, there was a last-minute decision to extend the time cut-off to prevent elimination. This change saved several sprinters from elimination.

Tadej Pogačar was the favorite for this stage, and he won. Jonas Vingegaard, however, seemed to recover from his relatively disappointing performance on Hautacam and got 2nd for the day. However, the most surprising result of the stage was the performance of Remco Evenepoel, who came 12th overall. While he retained his 3rd place position on GC this was a poor performance from Remco. Perhaps most demoralizing was when Vingegaard lapped him across the finish line. (Time trials are performed in reverse-GC order, with staggered starts.)

Stage 14

Stage 14 was the hardest mountain stage in the Pyrenees and featured 4 categorized climbs including 2 “beyond category” climbs. Many of these climbs are famous in the Tour de France: Col du Tourmalet, Col de Peyresoudre. The final ascent was a 12 km climb up Luchon-Superbagnères.

The break of the day was never fully defined but riders broke away from the peloton on the Tourmalet. However, most notable on the Tourmalet was the abandon of Remco Evenepoel from the Tour de France. He was quickly distanced from the peloton and it became apparent that he was not in the shape to continue with the Tour.

His abandon means the fight for the podium is alive, especially among several young riders who have never placed in the podium for the Tour de France before. Florian Lipowitz on Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe is leading the pack of young riders, but Oscar Onley and Kévin Vauquelin are all in contention as well.

Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious worked hard to score points for the King of the Mountains jersey, breaking away from the peloton to be the first over the Tourmalet. He successfully gained enough points to secure the KOM for one more day. However Martinez was caught on the final climb up Luchon-Superbagnères.

Thymen Arensman, a Dutch rider on INEOS Grenadiers also broke away and reached the foot of Luchon-Superbagnères with almost 3 minutes on the GC group. Against all odds, Arensman managed to win the stage ahead of the GC attacks of Vingegaard on Pogačar.

The Dish: A French Basque Classic

I always love a chicken recipe, so I was pleased to have a reason to try out this French classic: poulet basquaise. I went with Anthony Bourdain’s recipe. First the chicken thighs were seasoned with salt and espelette pepper. Then they were browned. After setting those aside the peppers and onion were cooked a bit with tomatoes and white wine to make a sauce. I added the chicken back in, and served it all together.

This was yummy and especially so with the Chateauneuf-de-Pape that I paired it with! I think in the future I would play around with the seasonings a bit more to try to get a better balance, but I think that is more my fault rather than an issue with the recipe!

Reflections

After this Tour de France stage 13-14 recap there are two notable takeaways. First, Pogačar has a comfortable lead on Jonas of over 4 minutes. Jonas has another 3 minutes on third place. So the top two spots seem pretty solid barring some major error or blow up.

Second, the fight for the final podium spot (which is also essentially the fight for best young rider aka the white jersey) is very competitive. This is exciting, and shows that the next generation of cyclists has some really promising talent!

A bientôt!

Missed the latest action? Catch the rest of the Pyrenees action in my previous post.