Stage 14

The road

How it was won

1. 1100 km to go

   Sagan takes his quota

   Green jersey on his back, exactly as Jalabert was here in 1995, Sagan collects the intermediate sprint points, and afterwards twenty riders coalesce into the day's break.

2. 233 km to go

   Pinot puts FDJ to work

   On the Côte de Sauveterre with the gap at 6:17, Pinot sets his two teammates riding. Stannard's long shift on the front of the bunch is over and Porte's is just beginning; over the top it is 5:23 and the stage belongs to the break.

3. 310 km to go

   The break turns on itself

   Gołas goes first for Urán and takes twenty-five seconds; Koren solos across with fifteen kilometres left. On the penultimate climb the escape stops being a group and becomes a scattering.

4. 42 km to go

   The Montée Jalabert

   Three kilometres at ten per cent up the Côte de la Croix Neuve, out of Mende and into thin air. Bardet attacks, is caught by Simon Yates, attacks again and this time the elastic snaps. Steve Cummings, dropped on the lower slopes and riding at his own measured tempo, is quietly coming back.

5. 5At the line

   Cummings on Mandela Day

   Over the top and along the aerodrome, Cummings arrives at speed and takes Bardet and Pinot in the final metres — MTN-Qhubeka's first ever Tour de France stage, won by an Englishman on Mandela Day.

The result