LE TOUR DE FRANCE: Stage 14 goes to a Dane

Soren Kragh Andersen inspired to victory by younger teammate Marc Hirschi

By Chuck Gibson (Interview quotes provided by Le Tour de France)

INTERNATIONAL (September 12, 2020) – Danish rider Soren Kragh Andersen made a late, but winning move to earn the Stage 14 win in the Tour de France today.

It was a relatively quiet day on the tour Saturday as no riders made a move until just 11 km to go. Tiesj Benoot, teammate of Andersen, was first to attack with 11 km remaining in the stage. He was caught by Lennard Kamna and Thomas De Gendt less than 4 km later with 7.5 km remaining. Kamna rode strong again after he attacked late in Stage 13 going for the win Friday, but finished second when a strong counter attack by Dani Martinez earned the Columbian rider the stage win.

Saturday belonged to Andersen as he rode clear with just 3 km to go. It was the winning move as he maintained a 15 second gap over the peloton for the victory.

“I have no words. I feel a lot of emotions,” said Andersen. “I dreamt about this, but it was hard to say if I was good enough for winning a Tour de France stage before I had done it. I’m amazed.”

Andersen said he felt like he “had really good legs all day” but acknowledged you never know what the other riders have. Finding the confidence to win a stage in the Tour has been a challenge. Andersen says the young guys on the team have been unbelievable and motivating with their performance.

 “Marc Hirschi gave the whole group a lot of motivation,” Andersen said.  “It took me some time to get the confidence to win at the Tour. Seeing this young guy doing unbelievable things was inspiring. We didn’t expect to go so well. We have the youngest team in the Tour I think. We came here for the future and we perform already!”

Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, and Egan Bernal remain one, two, and three in the overall standings within one-minute of one another. Pogacar is 44 seconds back of Roglic, who kept the Yellow Jersey and the overall lead for another day. Bernal is just 59 seconds behind the leader in third place. Roglic found the stage to be tougher than he expected, but knows Stage 15 will present a challenge to keep the Yellow Jersey.

“I thought the stage was going to be easier today, but it was full gas racing the whole day,” said Roglic. [Tomorrow’s mountaintop finish at] Grand Colombier will be a nice challenge, and I’m sure it will be fun to watch.”

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