After coming close in the Pyrénées, the 27-year-old Tour rookie went for it again on the Tour’s one great col in the Jura. His teammates had done everything right to get him to the base of the mountain. Alberto Bettiol especially had an enormous job in the break, to power away from the peloton. He pulled for James up the Grand Colombier’s lower slopes, where enormous crowds were out to celebrate France’s national holiday, Bastille Day. Then, he pulled off and it was up to James, who climbed with grit and courage, but could not follow the attack of a former world champion.

On the last pitch of the Grand Colombier, James gave everything he had, but got passed by the elite group that is racing for the yellow jersey. He ended the stage in seventh.

Now, the Tour is heading into the Alps, and James is hoping to better his performances from the Pyrénées and Jura. One day, everything will go his way. Until then, he’ll keep racing with the same spirit with which he has attacked his debut Tour.

Tomorrow will be a decisive day in the race for the polka-dot jersey. Neilson Powless leads the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition by 15 points going into the Alps. Tomorrow’s stage from Annemasse to Morzine crosses five categorized cols, culminating in the fearsome Col de la Joux Plane. In total, there are over 4,000 meters of climbing. Neilson could win up to 52 points on the road tomorrow.

To stay in contention, he will have to go for the break. James would love to join him.

Hear their thoughts and from DS Charly Wegelius before stage 14.

Today was bittersweet really. Kwiatkowski stayed away. That would have been nice to be able to go with that. But I am still super happy with the performance I put in. It just wasn’t quite enough today. He went pretty quick. With three kilometers to go, I really started to press, but with 50 meters to go they caught me. A little bit of me died inside when they came past.

I always had a bit of faith in myself and belief in myself that I could come to the Tour de France and battle for stage wins, and I think I have proved I have the ability to do that. To go out and train all winter in the cold, you have got to believe in yourself, don’t you? I put in the graft to do that as well. I will get there. One day the stars will align. And I will keep battling. There are plenty more chances.

When we hit the bottom of the climb, we had been cooking out there in the sun and going pretty quick, through and off with twenty guys. We were doing like 65 km/hr on the flat. Everyone was a little bit cooked at the bottom. Everyone was. I was. And it was just a case of riding my tempo, going as hard as I could for as long as I could. I didn’t want to kick and go too hard and come back. I wanted to ride at just as consistent a tempo as I could. We hit the bottom and that was it. The next 45 minutes were just—it is like you are coming onto the motorway, and instead of going into fifth gear, you just stay in second and you are just bouncing off the red line, just doing that for 45 minutes. You bring it up to the red line and just sit there. You are not going over it, but you are just tipping into it and going below it and just trying to get as close to that red as you can. So I hit the bottom and was like, this is it. The next 45 minutes to an hour will be painful.

I certainly thought there was a realistic opportunity to win. And the opportunity was there. Kwiatkowski took it and he won, so it was there and I just wasn’t quite good enough on the day to pull it out of the bag. But it’s pretty good eh. The level here has been so high. And there have been points where I have just been like, it’s too much, but then there are moments like today and the other day where I am like, okay I am battling for stage wins here, so I think it is a pretty surreal experience. This is my first Tour as well, so hopefully I can carry that experience on.

For now, there is going to be more of the same: stage hunting. I will either be out the back or off the front.

Today was pretty easy. I was staying in the wheels, saving up for the next two days. Hopefully, it is going to pay off. James’s ride was pretty incredible. From the start, it looked like UAE was definitely not going to let the breakaway go, but they made it stick, so it is a real shame that he got caught right on the line, but it was an awesome ride from him. He is definitely showing his strength in his Tour. I hope he keeps it up.

Well, we knew before the stage that it would be a complicated stage for the break to make it to the finale, because the first part of the race was relatively easy, and we thought that UAE would be keen to control. The team did a great job in the beginning, covering the moves with Alberto and James, but also previously with Urán and Chaves. I think James did a great job in the break of managing himself and getting to the climb in the right spot with Alberto’s help. They managed the downhill there great before. And I think overall James did a great job of staying as calm as he did in the Pyrénées, because he could have easily got over excited, having experienced that already, but he stayed on topic, which isn’t easy to do at the Tour with all of the people and the expectations and everything. Alberto did a really prima job for him on the climb, and I think that regardless of the placing, the speed that James went up the climb was impressive considering the gap that they had over the GC contenders, just to make it up there and survive was a high-class performance. Obviously, I would have loved for him to survive and finish second or third, but it was another great performance that I hope will give him confidence going forward.