Søren Kragh Andersen took a second stage win for Team Sunweb at this year’s Tour de France after attacking alone in the closing kilometres of the fourteenth stage to win alone in Lyon. It followed on from Marc Hirschi’s win on stage 12.
Attacks went early as Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) and Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) rode away at km 2, and were then joined by Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ). Bol dropped back for team-mate Casper Pedersen before the pair dropped back to the peloton.
Küng pushed on alone but was caught with 80km to go as the battle for the Green Jersey saw an intense pace set by Peter Sagan’s Bora hansgrohe team on the day’s longest climb and that infernal pace remained for the majority of the stage – only calming for a brief period with around 60 kilometres to go.
With the reduced peloton all back together heading towards the day’s final two climbs, Team Sunweb put their plan in motion with Tiesj Benoot launching a stinging attack on the opening ascent. Benoot was caught and after a lull in pace more attacks flew on the second climb with Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck Quick Step) trying to go clear.
When the pace slowed once more, Søren Kragh Andersen delivered the perfectly timed attack, with a devastating turn of speed to get clear of the bunch. Utilising his time trial and descending skills to perfection and with the team halting any chase behind, Kragh Andersen could sit up and put his arms in the air as he crossed the line.
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) retained the yellow jersey ahead of the gruelling climb to Grand Colombier.
Søren Kragh Andersen: “It’s incredible, I didn’t really believe this morning when I woke up that this would happen. I’m really happy with the team effort from the guys today, they made it hard enough that I could find the perfect moment to attack. I saw when I went that everybody was tired and they started to look at each other; I knew then that it was the right moment. I had good legs and could go full gas all the way to the line. We’re taking the race in our hands, maybe we don’t realise it’s the Tour de France – but we’re just racing and it happens to be on the biggest stage in the world.”
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