Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 5:20 PM
Tadej Pogacar has won the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France. The unleashed yellow jersey wearer dealt a hammer blow to Jonas Vingegaard on Plateau de Beille, who lost more than a minute. Remco Evenepoel, almost three minutes behind, took third place.
The sun was shining at the start in Loudenvielle on Sunday. It promised to be a hellish day, because a gruelling mountain stage of almost 200 kilometres was on the menu, with an arrival on the legendary climb Plateau de Beille. On the way, four first category climbs had to be conquered, including the Col de Peyresourde and the Col de Portet-d’Aspet. A stage to die for.
Direct course
The fifteenth stage started with the climb of the Col de Peyresourde, which immediately opened up the race. Many riders attacked, including Romain Bardet, Richard Carapaz, David Gaudu, Oier Lazkano and Biniam Girmay. A first leading group was formed, but there were also a number of riders who might or wanted to hold out until the intermediate sprint. Girmay took the full loot there, but was later demoted to third place by the jury because he took Michael Matthews for a walk.
Girmay extended his lead in the points classification – photo: Cor Vos
The peloton also had no interest in a leading group that gained many minutes. This was mainly due to Visma | Lease a Bike, because they had put Christophe Laporte in front. Laporte then saw that the leading group at the front fell apart and guys like Richard Carpapaz and Simon Yates tried to make the jump. They succeeded together with a number of others, which resulted in a new and this time ‘stable’ leading group following regarding fifty kilometers.
Yates, Hindley and Carapaz in attack
Named: Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Laurens De Plus (INEOS Grenadiers), Jai Hindley, Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), Richard Carapaz, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost ), Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Enric Mas, Alex Aranburu, Javier Romo (Movistar), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty), Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Tobias Halland Johannessen ( Uno-X Mobility). A strong head group of sixteen.
Sixteen became fifteen when Meintjes was thrown back into the peloton by a flat tire. In that peloton, it was still Visma | Lease a Bike that was riding in the lead. In the valley following the Col de Portet-d’Aspet, the lead of the leading group increased slightly. As a result, they arrived at the foot of the Col d’Agnes, the penultimate climb of the day, with a lead of three minutes and 40 seconds.
Jungels was an important link in the leading group, especially in function of Hindley – photo: Cor Vos
Initiative remains Visma’s | Lease a Bike to come
The leading group did not reach the foot with fifteen, however, the cooperation did not seem to be that good following all. Just before the Col d’Agnes (10.1 kilometers at 8.1%) Hindley, Jungels, Sobrero, Healy, Romo, Mas and De Plus rode away. In the chasing group the cooperation was now completely gone, following which Carapaz felt compelled to go solo in search of the leaders. The leaders were now Hindley, Mas and De Plus, they were – together with Carapaz – the best climbers of the early breakaway.
It took a while, but Carapaz did join the front of the race. Four riders rode together to the top of the Col d’Agnes. And in the peloton? There it was still Visma | Lease a Bike that rode in front. They had clearly made a plan; to make the race as hard as possible. A strong Wilco Kelderman therefore set a solid pace, the group of favorites thinned out further and further. At the top of the Col d’Agnes there were only nineteen riders left in the severely thinned out peloton.
Visma | Lease a Bike made an impression – photo: Cor Vos
Impressive turn by Jorgenson on Plateau de Beille
The four leaders were joined by Halland Johannessen on the descent. The Norwegian rode a strong descent and was able to rejoin his wagon. In the valley to the final climb, the five were able to extend their lead once more, following which they reached the foot of the Plateau de Beille (15.8 kilometres at 7.8%) with a lead of two minutes and 20 seconds. At the foot, Kelderman’s work, who had been in the lead for tens of kilometres, was definitely over.
Matteo Jorgenson took over without hesitation, the American immediately cracked the group of favorites. Among others, João Almeida, Giulio Ciccone, Felix Gall and Derek Gee had to let go early. Tadej Pogacar, like Jonas Vingegaard, had only one more lieutenant on the flanks of the Plateau de Beille. The five escapees tried to stay out of the hands of the classification riders at the front, but it became clear early on that this was not going to work.
Jorgenson’s bear work in pictures – photo: Cor Vos
Vingegaard tries early, Pogacar follows quickly
That was entirely due to the work of Kelderman and Jorgenson, who dropped almost all the favorites. Jorgenson pulled over ten kilometers from the finish, following which Vingegaard immediately accelerated considerably. Pogacar stuck to his rear wheel like glue, so we had a real duel on Plateau de Beille. With nine kilometers to go, the two tenors came to Carapaz, the last remaining escapee. After a few hundred meters of hanging on, the Olympic champion had to go mercilessly.
Behind Vingegaard and Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel was the best. The leader of the young rider classification initially followed at a good twenty seconds, but lost more and more ground. The Belgian did an excellent job in the battle for the podium, because his closest competitors – Almeida and Rodríguez – lost more time once more. His place on the final podium of the Tour de France seems to be getting closer and closer.
We briefly saw a duel – photo: Cor Vos
Pogacar leaves Vingegaard behind
Back to the battle between Vingegaard and Pogacar now. Vingegaard continued to set the pace, but Pogacar seemed to be sitting comfortably on his wheel. Pogacar opted for a defensive tactic at the beginning of the final climb, but that changed five kilometres from the top. The Slovenian blasted away and mercilessly left Vingegaard behind. Vingegaard might do anything but follow and had to concede more than 30 seconds with three kilometres to go.
Pogacar did not rest in the final kilometres. In fact, he extended his lead. The yellow jersey wearer crossed the finish line at the top of Plateau de Beille with a very large lead. He dealt a hammer blow to Vingegaard, who eventually came in one minute and eight seconds behind. Evenepoel came in third, almost three minutes behind.
RIT AK PNT MOUNTAIN YOUTH
