Tour de France: Mollema wins Stage 14

Bauke Mollema celebrates as he crosses the finish line during the 14th stage on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Dutchman Bauke Mollema won stage 14 of the Tour de France on a baking, semi-mountainous run from the citadel at Carcassonne to the small town of Quillan at the foot of the Pyrenees on Saturday.

Overall leader Tadej Pogacar was under no threat, even if he finished some seven minutes adrift on what he called a boring stage.

His UAE team raced at the front of the main peloton with Ineos keeping an ever-watchful eye on them. Frenchman Guillaume Martin of Cofidis was the day's other big winner as he closed to second overall four minutes adrift of 22-year-old defending champion Pogacar.

"Anyone in the top ten is dangerous, if I have a bad day any of them can catch me," Pogacar said. "Cycling is like that, one day you're the strongest, another day you aren't." Martin looked drawn when he spoke at the finish line in the overwhelming heat. "I took a risk, but this is the Tour and you have to take risks," said Martin, a former philosophy student and author of the novel, Socrates on a bike.

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