The Ineos Grenadiers rider clinched his first Tour de France victory after crossing the line in a time of 3hr 58min 45sec in Morzine.

He overcame the challenge of Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates and Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma who remain gripped in a thrilling tussle for the yellow jersey to take the win.

It was a second successive victory for Ineos Grenadiers after Poland’s Michał Kwiatkowski triumphed yesterday.

"Getting a victory in the best race of the world is incredible," said Rodriguez.

"I always dreamed of this.

"This is super.

"I'm super grateful to the team for all the effort and all the belief they put in me.

"I just want to thank them.

"I didn’t think it was possible when I got dropped in the Joux-Plane.

"I tried to climb at my own pace to later do the descent as fast as possible.

"I am a good descender, I wanted to take advantage.

"I was close to crashing a couple of times, yet I took some risks.

"Michal Kwiatkowski's victory and his work today inspired me."

Pogačar edged Vingegaard for second spot but the latter extended his advantage in the general classification by a single second courtesy of leading the Col de Joux Plane to earn bonus seconds.

"In general the team did well today and we are super happy how it went," said Vingegaard who holds a 10-second lead over Pogačar going into the final seven stages.

"It’s hard to tell how big the difference is between Tadej and me.

"We’re really equal.

"It’ll be a nice fight all the way to Paris."

The race was halted for almost 30 minutes following a pileup in the opening 6km.

The crash was caused by a rider slipping and resulted in South Africa’s Louis Meintjes of Intermarché–Circus–Wanty and Spain’s Antonio Pedrero of Movistar Team being forced to withdraw from the event due to injuries.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow with stage 15 running from Les Gets to Saint-Gervais-les-Bains.