photo credits @ Le Tour
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) tightened his grip on the yellow jersey with another solo triumph in the Pyrenees on Stage 15 as Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was badly exposed on the imposing Plateau de Beille.
After wrestling back the momentum, the Slovenian rider produced another devastating attack on the final climb to cruise to his 14th career win at the Tour.
Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike rode hard at the front all day, keen to keep the breakaway on a leash, but those tactics backfired when the Dane was left without team-mates and forced to go off the front with 10.5km remaining.
Pogacar easily stuck with him, then pulled away five kilometers later as he closed on the first Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998.
Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel, wearing the white jersey of the best young rider, finished third 2:51 behind and remains in that position in the General Classification.
Race Highlights
154 riders started Stage 15 of the 2024 Tour de France, which would cover 197.7 km between Loudenvielle and Plateau de Beille. The immediate ascent of the Col de Peyresourde generated a continuous series of attacks that did not form into an established breakaway, with David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) taking first position on the Peyresourde summit. Gaudu, Oier Lazkano (Movistar) and Romain Bardet (dsm-Firmenich) descended together, only to soon be caught by the bunch. It was at km 21 that Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) began a round of attacks that went on all the way to the very top of the Col de Menté, with Javier Romo (Movistar Team) the first over the summit accompanied by 16 other riders.
They had a 1’35” advantage over a peloton which Visma-Lease a Bike was leading. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) was in the leading group when they arrived at the intermediate sprint at Marignac (IS, km 37). Girmay won that sprint but was relegated to third after deviating from his line, with Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) being awarded first place. Nonetheless, the Eritrean now already has enough points to guarantee him ownership of the green jersey on Stages 16 and 17.
17 riders in the breakaway
Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Laurens de Plus (Ineos Grenadiers), Jai Hindley, Bob Jungels, 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 Team), Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty), Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Magnus Cort and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) collectively took on the Col de Portet-d’Aspet (Cat. 1, km 65.4), which was conquered in first position by Johannessen, with the peloton 1’05” behind at this point. Meintjes dropped back from the breakaway due to a mechanical problem which returned him to the main group, where Vingegaard’s Visma teammates continued to set the pace. On the way from the Col de Portet-d’Aspet to the Col d’Agnes there was some respite from the intense climbing for the riders, with the break building up an advantage of 3’30” by km 123.
Intensity on the Col d’Agnes climb
With 73 km to go, before the Col d’Agnes climb, the breakaway was divided into two: De Plus, Hindley, Jungels, Sobrero, Healy, Mas and Romo leaving the rest behind. It was at the foot of the climb that these frontrunners would register the maximum advantage over the main group, of 3’45”. Jungels, Sobrero, Healy and Romo lost ground on the climb, whilst Carapaz managed to return to the front of the race 2 km from the summit, which was reached in first place by De Plus. The Yellow Jersey group was reduced to 15 riders, with all the GC favorites in position and guided by Visma-Lease a Bike, reaching the top of the climb 3’05” after the breakaway.
All decided on a tough final climb
It was a five-man breakaway of De Plus, Hindley, Mas, Carapaz and Johannessen who reached the foot of the final climb of Plateau de Beille together and 2’25” ahead of the GC group. The lead group gradually disintegrated on that final climb with Mas and Carapaz resisting for as long as they could before Vingegaard attacked from the main group with 11km to go. The Dane accelerated, with Pogacar on his wheel and the two GC favorites soon took the lead.
With 5.4 kilometers to go, the Slovenian overtook Vingegaard and powered to a dominant victory by more than a minute, with Evenepoel struggling to limit the damage and eventually following the winner over the line almost three minutes later.
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