The Belgian champion, wearing the yellow jersey, breaks away from his breakaway companions and wins alone. A quiet day for the leader
Tim Wellens won the 15th stage of the 112th Tour de France, 169 kilometers from Muret to Carcassonne. For the 34-year-old Belgian from UAE-Xrg, teammate of Tadej Pogacar and reigning Belgian national champion, this is his 41st career victory: he has already won stages in both the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta. On a day characterized by long-range breakaways, as expected, Wellens got into the right action and then gradually broke away from all his fellow escapees to win by a clear margin. This is the fifth Belgian stage win in this Tour and the fifth stage win for UAE-Xrg. Behind him was Victor Campenaerts, another Belgian, this time from Visma-Lease a Bike, who finished second at 1’29”. Third was Julian Alaphilippe (Fra, Tudor), followed by Van Aert and Laurance.
So the Slovenian can once again wear the yellow jersey and is just six stages away from a fourth victory in the Boucle after those in 2020, 2021, and 2024. The UAE-Xrg world champion has a 4’13” lead over Jonas Vingegaard, the Danish rider from Visma who is his arch rival. Third place goes to Florian Lipowitz, the German rider from Red Bull, at 7’53“. Fourth is Britain’s Oscar Onley at 9’18”, and fifth is France’s Vauquelin at 10’21”. It is worth noting that in the fight for the green jersey (points classification), Van der Poel scored 20 points in the intermediate sprint and closed in on Jonathan Milan.
The tour schedule— On Monday, the Tour, which ends on Sunday, July 27 in Paris, observes its second and final rest day. It resumes on Tuesday with the sixteenth stage: 171.5 km from Montpellier to Mont Ventoux, mostly flat before tackling the Giant of Provence, whose summit is bare of vegetation due to gusts of Mistral (our Maestrale) reaching speeds of 300 km/h. It is frightening just to look at it, and the history of the Tour, when it has passed through here, has brought both joy and tragedy. From the first time, the time trial won by Charly Gaul in 1958, to the death of Tommy Simpson in 1965, to Eddy Merckx who needed oxygen to recover from the effort in 1970, from the Pantani-Armstrong duel in 2000 with victory for the Pirate, to the devastating first time for Chris Froome in 2013, the year of the first of his four successes. The Briton is also remembered for his run in 2016, when a TV motorbike crashed into his bike and Chris ran, ran uphill like Forrest Gump waiting for his new bike. This time, the climb starts on the Bedoin side, beginning in Saint-Esteve: 15.7 km at an average gradient of 8.8%. The hardest sections are the third and last kilometers, with peaks of 12%. Six kilometers from the finish line, the route passes through Chalet Reynard, at the exit of the forest: from this point on, it is nothing but rocks, heat, and extreme suffering.
