Carcassonne – Archyde.com
Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen won his first Tour de France stage by beating his rivals on stage 15, while overall leader Jonas Weingard had a bad day on Sunday after a crash.
The Alpsin-Desininc rider Philipsen took the lead in perfect timing, beating compatriot Voet van Aert and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, who were second and third respectively.
Wengard retained the yellow jersey for the general standings, but had an accident and lost two of his Jumbo-Visma teammates, as Stephen Krusvik withdrew due to an accident, and Primosh Roglic did not start the 202.5 km stage from Rhodes in the absence of recovery from injuries.
With the temperature reaching more than 40 degrees Celsius, organizers sprayed sections of the road with water to cool the air before the runners passed.
Weingard, the leader in the general classification, collided with his colleague Tish Bennott, but he returned to the conduct of his career and is still two minutes and 22 seconds ahead of defending champion Taddy Bugacher.
Two French riders, Alexis Gujar and Benjamin Thomas, tried to attack 48 km from the end, and Thomas was close to winning but slipped in the last 500 metres, keeping France waiting to win the first stage of the current edition of the race.
The runners will take a break from the Tour de France on Monday.