It marked the end of a difficult few days for Evenepoel who lost time in the race’s first mountain stage at Hautacam on stage 12, and was then overtaken by Jonas Vingegaard during the stage 13 time trial. At the start of the day he was 7:24 behind yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar.

Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel, who was in third place, abandoned the Tour de France during the challenging 14th stage, midway through the Col du Tourmalet ascent. The decision came as a surprise, cutting short his participation in the 182.

Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, was expected to win the stage in the absence of time trial specialists — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger, who both crashed and exited the race on the first day of the Tour last week.

The Tour de France continues with the toughest stage of this year’s race, featuring four mammoth Pyrenean climbs