Wout Poels wins maiden Grand Tour stage as Jonas Vingegaard fends off Tadej Pogacar to sustain GC lead

Wout Poels (Team Bahrain Victorious) won Stage 15 of the Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) crossing the line in tandem as the Dane sustained his 10-second lead in the GC.

A fan appeared to clip Sepp Kuss with 128km to go. No rider had to abandon, but fellow Jumbo Visma rider Nathan van Hooydonck was among the most badly affected by the incident. The winner would ultimately come from the 36-man escape which was allowed by the leader’s team to establish a sizeable advantage after the crash.

As the race edged towards its conclusion, it looked like it was left to Poels, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) to fight it out for the stage win.

And Poels made his move as he crested Cote des Amerands, and he held on to solo to the win. Van Aert took second and Mathieu Burgaudeau ended up claiming third.

The yellow jersey group trailed the leader by seven minutes as Poels crossed the line, and UAE Team Emirates moved to the front of that group, setting the pace as they embarked on Cote des Amerands and then Mount-Blanc.

But with a kilometre to go, it was – the top three in the GC – Pogacar, Vingegaard and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) who were together. Pogacar made a move, and then another but the yellow jersey incumbent closed it down twice and they crossed the line together.

Thus, Vingegaard holds a 10-second advantage going into Monday’s rest day.

– – –