Evenepoel beats UAE on Plateau de Solaison as Vingegaard crashes out on Tour stage 15
Evenepoel claimed his first Tour road stage as Vingegaard was forced to abandon the race.
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Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) powered to victory on the Plateau de Solaison on Stage 15 of the Tour de France in an uphill sprint ahead of UAE Team Emirates-XRG duo Tadej Pogačar and Isaac del Toro, on a day that saw Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) abandon the race.
The world champion played domestique for Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the final climb, which saw the Mexican champion move onto the podium and into the white jersey, while Evenepoel moved up to second.
The Tour was rocked when Vingegaard was forced to abandon following a crash with 20km remaining on the run-in to the Plateau de Solaison.
Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) led the race onto the climb with a 20-second advantage over Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Yannis Voisard (Tudor), and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), while the peloton trailed just over two minutes behind.
The American champion Simmons, relentless in his efforts to animate the Tour so far, ditched his companions on the lower slopes, catching and passing Schmid. However, a stern pace in the yellow jersey group caused the breakaway’s advantage to plummet.
Pogačar upped the pace in the GC group with 7.5km remaining. It was not an attack, but a fierce tempo with Isaac Del Toro on his wheel alongside Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step). The squeeze in pace saw Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) drop.
Adam Yates was collected by Pogačar, Del Toro, and Evenepoel, with the Briton delivering a final pull before Pogačar once more took control of the tempo with 4.5km remaining.
Del Toro looked to be noticeably suffering more than Pogačar and Evenepoel inside the final 4km, which saw Seixas and Lipowitz claw back a few seconds.
The Mexican had enough resources to attack under the flamme rouge, but Evenepoel was able to respond, leaving Pogačar to take up the pace once more.
Del Toro tried once more with 500m to go, but it was the same outcome. Evenepoel launched his sprint in the closing metres with Pogačar latched on his wheel, but that's where the world champion would remain as Evenepoel claimed an impressive stage victory and solidified his bid to finish on the podium.
Seixas and Lipowitz came home just under a minute from the stage winner.
Pogacar now leads the Tour by 5:00 over Evenepoel, who moved up into second, while Del Toro jumped to third at 5:58. Seixas sits fourth at 6:23 as the second week of action draws to a close.
How it unfolded
Alpecin-Premier Tech swarmed the front of the peloton from the flag drop, with the intermediate sprint coming inside the first 20km of the stage. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) once more claimed the maximum 25 points, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) taking 20 for second, closing the gap in the points standings to 31
Following the intermediate sprint, the battle for the breakaway ignited with plenty of different groups gaining a brief advantage on the category 3 Côte des Rousses.
Nothing stuck initially, and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) took a wheel change on the climb with 150km, in a calm, relaxed manner, despite the battle for the breakaway driving the pace out front, a sign of the form of the Frenchman.
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) duked it out for the points at the top of the climb, with the Frenchman coming out on top, claiming two, with the Ecuadorian taking one, as the battle for the polka-dot jersey intensified.
A 24-rider breakaway eventually went clear with around 100km remaining, with Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) featuring as the highest-placed rider in the GC for the third stage running.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Bruno Armirail and Victor Campenaerts (both Visma | Lease a Bike) made the selection, alongside Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) among those present.
With 52km remaining, the breakaway hit the category 1 Col de la Croisette with an advantage of around 2:30. The pace of Pidcock whittled down the size of the group on the climb before Simmons attacked with just under 50km remaining.
The American champion crested the climb with a handful of seconds over Pidcock, Yates, Einer Rubio (Movistar), and Yannis Voisard (Tudor), while the peloton trailed by over three minutes.
Pidcock knotted the gap as the descent began before Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) also regained contact with the head of the race on the Côte du Mont with 40km remaining.
Schmid went clear of his companions over the top of the climb and dangled out in front with an advantage between ten and twenty seconds, while behind, Visma’s tempo slashed the breakaway's advantage.
However, disaster struck with 20km remaining as there was a crash in the peloton involving multiple riders from Visma and UAE. Vingegaard was among those involved, as well as Isaac del Toro, with the Dane forced to abandon the race.
The incident also saw the advantage of those up front as the race swelled towards three minutes once more as they hit the Plateau de Solaison, though it would remain a mission to hold off Pogačar.
Result: Tour de France stage 15
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