When Tadej Pogachar lifted himself from the saddle on stage 14 of the Tour de France, some 550 meters from the summit of the Col de Joux, it should have been obvious to anyone on the hillside that he was preparing to accelerate with the power of a thousand suns. For he had done exactly the same thing the previous afternoon at almost the same spot on the Grand Colombier.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma), in the yellow jersey, was feeling his rivals' movements with his shoulder and preparing for impact. Unable to pick up the pace when Pogachar attacked, the Slovenian was forced to hit the brakes after 40 meters.

To make matters worse, Pogachar lost his footing with a few meters remaining on the summit, allowing Vingegaard to use the full bonus second slot on the summit.

Pogachar caught up on the summit of the descent, but then the two were caught and passed by Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) on the fast drop to Morzine. Pogachar pulled away from Vingegaard for second place and took back the two bonus seconds.

This day of eternal motion in the Alps had a little bit of everything: a prolonged neutral early on due to a crash, a show of force by Jumbo Visma for most of the day, and a huge attack by Pogachar and UAE Team Emirates on the Col de Joux Plane. But when the music stopped, Pogachar's overall time difference was reduced to 10 seconds.

The moment Pogachar received the white jersey in the Morzine mixed zone and fought for it at the top of the Col de Joux Plane became the talk of the town; after missing out on the 2022 Tour de Flanders, Pogachar does not like to argue too publicly.

"It was a wasted bullet after such a big climb," Pogachar said. 'I'm a little disappointed that we wasted a sprint, but I don't think it changes the end result. I couldn't sprint for the bonus. I messed up a little bit. But that's the reality."

Outside the team bus on the Route de la Plagne, Mauro Gianetti, general manager of UAE Team Emirates, also chose a diplomatic line. He said cautiously, "It would be a shame if the race was affected by anything other than the legs."

Sports manager Maxine Joxen Fernandez hinted at a little more frustration with the accident. 'This is the situation,' she said. 'According to UCI rules, in a time trial, the car has to be 25 meters behind you. So it's unacceptable for (the bikes) to be two meters in front.

The Tour's entry into the Alps was expected to mark a new phase in the race, but instead it told us little that we did not already know: Vingegaard and Pogachar are very competitive and there is still nothing to separate them. Vingegaard and Pogachar are very close in ability, and nothing has yet to separate them.

On the Lamaze Pass, where Vingegaard had mobilized all of his teammates, it looked like Jumbo Visma was going to launch the kind of onslaught that turned the Tour upside down on the Granon Pass a year ago. [Adam Yates had started accelerating in Pogachar's place. At 3.7km from the summit, Pogachar attacked alone, clocking 27km/h despite the double-digit gradient.

As in the Puy de Dome and the Grand Colombier, the first steep climb built a slight advantage over Vingegaard. But as was the case on these climbs, the maillot jaune calmly focused on plugging the leak. The gap never exceeded four seconds, and the two came together again in the last two kilometers.

"I think today was a good day. We were really strong and we worked hard," Pogachar said. 'It wasn't a perfect day, but we saw a lot today and we learned a lot.'

"Of course, I would have preferred to drop him and finish alone. But it was a good day and I feel good.

Despite Pogachar's second place to Vingegaard, Fernandez insisted that the decisive momentum was smaller than the gap at the top of the overall standings on stage 14. "The momentum at this moment is the same as it was yesterday," Fernandez said. 'We lost only one second, but the fight goes on. [Of course, Pogachar and Vingegaard will be back in action on stage 15 over the Col de la Croix Fly and Col de Aravis before a summit finish in St. Gervais Mont-Blanc. If the two sides are not separated in these three consecutive mountain stages, Tuesday's short time trial could decide the race.

"Tomorrow we have a really hard stage, a time trial, the Col de la Rose, and then stage 20," said the team leader. 'There are still four stages left. It's going to be really tight, but I'm going into the next stage with a lot of confidence."