Tim Wellens wins Tour de France's 15th stage, teammate Tadej Pogačar maintains grip on yellow jersey
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Pogačar and his closest general classification rivals, Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, finished in a large group 6:07 behind Wellens. It meant the Slovenian rider maintained his overall lead of 4:13 over Vingegard and 7:53 over German rider Lipowitz.
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Sunday's 105-mile stage from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne got off to a chaotic start with a crash in the peloton affecting Alaphilippe, Lipowitz, and many others. It appeared to be caused by a cobbled traffic island that caught at least one rider by surprise.
Alaphilippe looked to have hurt his left shoulder, but all continued racing.
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Pogačar, who'd raced ahead, was told over the radio to try and calm the bunch so Vingegaard and Lipowitz could resume contact.
By the time the peloton got back together, it was about 40 seconds behind a 15-rider breakaway including Wellens.
Wellens was in a four-man leading group with Campenaerts, Michael Storer, and Quinn Simmons as they climbed the 1.8-mile, 10.2 percent incline Pas du Sant.
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— Tour de France™ (@LeTour)
Carlos Rodríguez, Warren Barguil, Aleks Vlasov, and Alexey Lutsenko were chasing, and Wellens waited for the trailing group to catch up before he attacked with 27 miles to go, knowing his rivals would find it hard to react with the downhill to come.
'On the last climb of the day I felt really good,' Wellens said. 'I saw the others also felt really good, but I knew I had to go solo and at the top of the climb I found my moment.'
Third-placed Alaphilippe celebrated after beating Van Aert and Laurance in a sprint to the line, thinking he'd won the stage, only to be told that two riders had finished ahead of him.
After being involved in a crash early in the race that knocked out his radio, Julian Alaphilippe (right) thought he won the 15th stage, but was actually third, just ahead of Carlos Rodríguez.
Thibault Camus/Associated Press
Raphaël Meyer, team manager of Alaphilippe's Tudor Pro Cycling Team, explained that the rider's radio was damaged in the early crash and so they were unable to communicate with him during the stage.
The race finishes next weekend in Paris. Monday offers riders the second rest day of the Tour.
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