In the fourteenth stage, the favourites stayed together, and other cyclists were allowed to go for the stage victory. Philippe Bouvatier and Robert Millar, who had led over the previous two cols, were in the uphill sprint to win, until Bouvatier allowed himself to be misdirected by a gendarme 200 metres before the finish (at the point where the team cars were separated from the cyclists) followed by Millar, and the victory went to Massimo Ghirotto. Ghirotto offered his prize (a new car) to Bouvatier though Millar maintained he would have overhauled Bouvatier to win and told CyclingNews in 2010 that "I don't know if the gendarme was to blame, I don't think he was, I know I would have come round Bouvatier in the sprint but then I ought to have dropped him before we got to that stage".