After spending the race in the break, driven over the Tourmalet and Hourquette d’Ancizan by his American champion teammate, Sean Quinn, Ben knew his odds of holding off the GC contenders on the famous Pyrenean summit were long. But he was determined to try.

As soon as the road turned up, Ben hit out, dropping the other riders in the break until he was alone. Then, it was a flat-out race to the finish up the hors categorie col. Ben fought hard, holding his advantage around a minute on the steeper lower slopes. But when the yellow jersey accelerated, Ben couldn’t match the pace, and had to let the wheel go.

Once his chance of winning was gone, Ben sat up and enjoyed the cheers of the crowds. He earned their respect today with his grit and his willingness to shake up this Tour de France.

Just getting into the breakaway today required a massive effort. Ben attacked again and again as the peloton tore up the valley out of the start town of Pau, before he, Sean, and Rui Costa finally made their move stick just before the Tourmalet. Sean then did a huge turn to make sure that their group stayed away as the GC favorites’ teams upped the pace behind them. They gave everything they had to stay in the game and just came up short.

The Tour rewarded Ben for his efforts with the stage’s Most Combative prize. Ben’s not in France this July to win red numbers though. Tomorrow is another opportunity. Stage 15 will be another Pyrenean epic, with four first-category climbs on the route before the final ascent to the finish at the summit of Plateau de Beille.

First, hear Ben’s thoughts about today’s race.

We took our best shot. That’s what we have to do, take the opportunities when we get them. My teammates did a great job today for me. They took me into the break. For sure it was still a big effort to get there. I had good legs today. They did a great job once I was in the break as well. We tried to make it stick to the line but UAE had other plans.

After Yates and Pogacar came past, I took it a little bit easier up to the top and got to enjoy the crowds. I think as a team, we’re racing really, really well together and unfortunately it hasn’t quite gone our way yet, but I’m sure if we keep racing like this, then eventually it will roll our way.