In the second Pyrenean battle, Tadej Pogacar gave his rivals no room and won stage 15 of the Tour de France 2024. The UAE Team Emirates leader, who also won the other mountainous section in the Pyrenees, was the day’s big winner and is on his way to his third title.
The Slovenian attacked four kilometers from the finish and held on until the end to consolidate his lead in the French round with one week to go. Second came Danish Jonas Vingegaard Visma | Lease a Bike, more than a minute behind. The best Latin American today was Colombian Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious) in seventh place, 5:08 behind the winner, while Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz crossed ninth.
The day started in a flashy way with an attack by Romain Bardet, Richard Carapaz, Simon Yates, David Gaudu, Oier Lazkano and Biniam Girmay, who came out for the intermediate sprint points. The Eritrean took advantage of his top speed, but was then relegated to third place by the judges for encroaching on Michael Matthews’ line.
Then, the breakaway of the day was formed with Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), Laurens De Plus (INEOS Grenadiers), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Enric Mas (Movistar), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Javier Romo (Movistar), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty), Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility). These men were given space by the peloton and rode together on the second and third climbs of the day.
Gradually the breakaway was losing riders on the Col d’Agnes, leaving Hindley, Jungels, Sobrero, Healy, Romo, Mas, De Plus and Carapaz, the best climbers of the initial breakaway, at the head of the race. Behind Wilco Kelderman set a strong pace in the group of favorites, which was left with only nineteen riders.
The leaders were joined on the descent by Halland Johannessen. The Norwegian rode an incredible descent and was able to catch the leaders again, but they were all caught by the favorites led by Vingegaard and Pogacar.
In the end, the Dane, who accelerated on the last climb of the day, caught all the survivors of the breakaway. Vingegaard took Pogacar on his wheel and the two stayed together for a few kilometers of the climb. For the Scandinavian, however, it proved difficult to keep the race leader’s wheel after a crushing attack.
This allowed Pogacar to ride solo for the last four kilometers. The Slovenian didn’t slow the pace and crossed the finish line with a very large lead at the top of Plateau de Beille and dealt a blow to Vingegaard, who eventually came in at 1:08. Evenepoel came in third at almost three minutes back.
Tour de France (2.UWT)
Results Stage 15 | Loudenvielle – Plateau de Beille (197,7 km)
| 1 | POGAČAR Tadej | UAE Team Emirates | 5:13:55 |
| 2 | VINGEGAARD Jonas | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 1:08 |
| 3 | EVENEPOEL Remco | Soudal Quick-Step | 2:51 |
| 4 | LANDA Mikel | Soudal Quick-Step | 3:54 |
| 5 | ALMEIDA João | UAE Team Emirates | 4:43 |
| 6 | YATES Adam | UAE Team Emirates | 4:56 |
| 7 | BUITRAGO Santiago | Bahrain – Victorious | 5:08 |
| 8 | RODRÍGUEZ Carlos | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
| 9 | CARAPAZ Richard | EF Education – EasyPost | 5:41 |
| 10 | GALL Felix | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 5:57 |
Ranking General
| 1 | POGAČAR Tadej | UAE Team Emirates | 61:56:24 |
| 2 | VINGEGAARD Jonas | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 3:09 |
| 3 | EVENEPOEL Remco | Soudal Quick-Step | 5:19 |
| 4 | ALMEIDA João | UAE Team Emirates | 10:54 |
| 5 | LANDA Mikel | Soudal Quick-Step | 11:21 |
| 6 | RODRÍGUEZ Carlos | INEOS Grenadiers | 11:27 |
| 7 | YATES Adam | UAE Team Emirates | 13:38 |
| 8 | CICCONE Giulio | Lidl – Trek | 15:48 |
| 9 | GEE Derek | Israel – Premier Tech | 16:12 |
| 10 | BUITRAGO Santiago | Bahrain – Victorious | 16:32 |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico