Rodriguez wins Alpine stage as Vingegaard retains slim lead in Tour de France

Def. champ Vingegaard fought off Pogacar's attack in Tour de France's Alpine test. Rodriguez won stage 14, Vingegaard leads Pogacar by 10 secs.

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard fought off a ferocious attack from Tadej Pogacar on the first of four Alpine tests in the Tour de France on Saturday as Spain's Carlos Rodriguez won stage 14.

Ineos rider Rodriguez climbed into third place overall by one second from Jai Hindley with a great climb and daredevil downhill finish.

Vingegaard now leads Pogacar by 10 seconds after winning a war of nerves in the battle for the title.

On the last of the day's ascents Jumbo's Sepp Kuss took Vingegaard as far as he could before Pogacar's own lieutenant Adam Yates attacked with the Dane isolated.

Pogacar then launched his blistering turn of pace and opened a five second gap only for the Dane to doggedly track and then reel in the exasperated Slovenian with 2km still to climb.

Vingegaard drew level with his younger rival and eyed him, but the latter refused to look back.

Pogacar tried again atop the 17km climb to burst past last year's winner but was blocked in the narrow passage of fans by a motorbike carrying a photographer.