LUCHON-SUPERBAGNERES, France (AP) — Dutch rider Thymen Arensman won the Tour de France's toughest stage after a long solo effort over mammoth climbs and defending champion Tadej Pogačar increased his overall lead on Saturday.
Arensman, who rides for the Ineos-Grenadiers team, posted the biggest victory of his career. After crossing the finish line in the deep fog enveloping the ski resort of Superbagnères, Arensman lay exhausted on the road with his head in his hands.
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Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, center, speeds down Tourmalet pass during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel lost time in the twelfth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 180.6 kilometers (112.2 miles) with start in Auch and finish in Hautacam, France, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, in second position, speeds downhill during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, speeds down Aspin pass during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Stage winner Netherlands' Thymen Arensman climbs during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
“To be honest, I just wanted to experience the Tour, the biggest race in the world," he said. "Now, to win a stage in my first Tour, and to do it this way, it’s unbelievable, crazy.”
He went solo with 37 kilometers (23 miles) left from a breakaway, and quickly opened a comfortable lead. He started the final ascent to Superbagnères, which is more than 12 kilometers long, on his own and resisted the return of the main contenders.
It was Arensman’s second Grand Tour stage win, having previously won a stage at the 2022 Spanish Vuelta.
As Arensman posed no threat to the overall standings, Pogačar and his teammates controlled the race from the back, with the yellow jersey holder and his main challenger Jonas Vingegaard trailing by around three minutes with eight kilometers remaining.
Vingegaard tried a move with four kilometers left and Pogačar responded with ease. The two rivals then watched each other closely and Arensman crossed first at the summit, more than one minute ahead of the duo.
Having won the previous two stages in the Pyrenees, Pogačar settled for second place. He accelerated in the final section to gain more time on Vingegaard, who completed the stage podium.
“We can be happy and satisfied with the Pyrenees,” Pogačar said. “Today we did a super stage, riding at our own pace all day long.”
Overall, Pogačar increased his lead over Vingegaard to four minutes, 13 seconds, with Florian Lipowitz in third place, 7:53 off the pace after Remco Evenepoel abandoned.
Evenepoel, who was third overall, struggled early on as the peloton faced another day of suffering on climbs that are part of the Tour's lore such as the Col du Tourmalet, the Col d’Aspin, Col de Peyresourde and Superbagnères.
The Olympic champion was dropped on the ascent of the Tourmalet. Evenepoel won the opening time trial but suffered in the Pyrenees. After struggling during Friday’s uphill race against the clock to Peyragudes, he managed to keep his third place in the general classification, more than seven minutes behind Pogačar.
Riders will exit high mountains during a 169-kilometer ride from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne. Although the route could favor sprinters, the Côte de Saint-Ferréol and then the Pas du Sant, a 2.9-kilometer climb at 10%, could provide opportunities for bold challengers seeking a breakaway.
The race finishes next weekend in Paris.
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Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, center, speeds down Tourmalet pass during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel lost time in the twelfth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 180.6 kilometers (112.2 miles) with start in Auch and finish in Hautacam, France, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, in second position, speeds downhill during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, speeds down Aspin pass during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Stage winner Netherlands' Thymen Arensman climbs during the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.6 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Pau and finish in Luchon Superbagneres, France, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
