The Slovenian rider extended his overall lead in the Tour de France by winning Saturday's 14th stage in the Pyrenees, which finished on the Pla d'Adet and with the iconic climb of the Tourmalet. His closest rival, Jonas Vingegaard, was second, 39 seconds back, while Remco Evenepoel was third, 1:10 back.

There will be another tough mountain stage on Sunday, but with such a big lead, Pogacar is becoming the dominant figure in the race for the Giro-Tour double. He now leads Vingegaard by 1'57", while Evenepoel has dropped to third, 2'22" behind.

"The plan was to get to the finish and make the sprint hard, maybe gain a few seconds and win the stage. However, in the end this is much better," he said. "I'm super, super happy to get this," he added.

The stage was very fast. UAE made everyone suffer before the final climb, where they sent Adam Yates in front with seven kilometres to go on the 11km climb to Pla d'Adet.

"It is so loud on the climb that we had to shout at each other; I told him to do the attack," said Pogacar. Yates attacked and then Pogacar caught up with him. They wanted Yates to win the stage, but it didn't happen. Pogacar's attack was followed by Vingegaard who stayed close but couldn't overtake him. Neither Vingegaard nor Evenepoel could keep up with the Slovenian.

"I'm much better than last year, I can handle the pressure and the emotions," said Pogacar. Perhaps the one who exceeded expectations was Evenepoel, who showed on his Tour de France debut that he can compete with the best in the mountains. The Belgian rider was delighted and was full of praise for Pogacar. "I tried to hang on as long as I could, but he's wild," said the Belgian.

Evenepoel's team worked perfectly, with Spaniard Mikel Landa at his side. Landa stayed with the Belgian throughout the race. He was particularly strong on the Tourmalet climb, which was packed with spectators. 

The 19km climb has an average gradient of 7.5% and reaches an altitude of 2,115m, and it wore down the riders on the way to the Pla d'Adet finish.

The stage saw some notable withdrawals, including Tom Pidcock, leaving 158 of the 176 riders who started in Florence still in the race. Pidcock, who is suspected of having Covid, decided not to start. He is now likely to concentrate on defending his Olympic mountain bike title in just three weeks' time.

 Juan Ayuso, one of Pogacar's teammates, also couldn't finish. The Spaniard will also be competing in the time trial and road race at Paris 2024.

There will be another challenging stage on Sunday, which coincides with France's national holiday on 14 July. In 2017, the last Frenchman to win on the national holiday was Warren Barguil. He will try to repeat the feat, as will his compatriot and the first leader of this 2024 Tour de France, Romain Bardet, in his year of retirement.

Instead, the five fearsome climbs should provide another battleground for Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel. Nobody can beat Pogacar on Saturday.

"We knew there would be this crazy attack. We knew the last three kilometres of the climb would be better for him," said Vingegaard, the reigning double Tour winner. There were always doubts as to whether the Dane had recovered in time from his crash in April. He seems to have, but Pogacar is at a higher level than in 2023. 

Yates' attack came as a surprise. Especially as Vingegaard's lieutenant Matteo Jorgenson was in the lead at the time. "We didn't expect Yates to go ahead, but we couldn't react," admitted Grischa Niermann, hinting at the UAE team's superiority. 

"Tadej is better than we expected," said Niermann. Saturday's morale boost went to Pogacar, who had seen some of his confidence taken away by Vingegaard last Wednesday.

Vingegaard won the stage sprint for the first time in their duel. Vingegaard seemed to be able to hurt him on these Pyrenees stages, but he couldn't on the first one.

Sunday's stage is the second part of the Pyrenees battle. The terrain is tough, with 4,800m of climbing and a brutal finish on the Plateau de Beille (15.8km, 7.9%). "Sunday is another day. Maybe it will be a stage that suits me better," concluded Jonas Vingegaard.