Tim Wellens takes out Tour de France stage, as Julian Alaphilippe comes third and thinks he's won
The French showman, who is loved by fans for his aggressive, attacking riding, won a bunch sprint, beating another Belgian, Wout van Aert, and France's Axel Laurance.
He sat up and punched the air in triumph on the line, not realising he had finished one minute, 36 seconds behind Wellens and eight seconds behind second-placed Victor Campenaerts.
Alaphilippe, who had been involved in a big crash early on the stage, smiled at his mistake after the race.
"Of course, you have to take it in a funny way," Alaphilippe told reporters after the end of the stage.
"Even after the line, Wouty [Wout van Aert] said to me 'no, no, there is people in the front [ahead of us].
"Yeah, after the crash, my radio didn't work, so I have to take it in a funny way.
"I did it on Liège–Bastogne–Liège, now I did it on the Tour, so it's part of the game."
In 2020, Alaphilippe looked to have won the Belgian one-day cycling classic Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and sat up on the line, raising his arms in triumph, only to be pipped by the fast-finishing Primož Roglič.
Wellens, one of defending champion and overall leader Tadej Pogačar domestiques, jumped away from a leading group of six some 43 kilometres from the finish and never looked back, beating compatriot Campenaerts by 1:28.
"It's a very special victory, everybody wants to ride the Tour but not everybody wins on the Tour de France," Wellens said.
"Suddenly there was a big crash … I followed one move and I was in the breakaway.
"I had an opportunity, I took it and I had legs to finish it."
Wellens's master, Pogacar, still leads Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard by 4:13 in the overall standings, edging 169.3 kilometres closer to a fourth Tour title after the hilly ride between Muret and Carcassonne.
German Florian Lipowitz sits in third place, 7:53 off the pace.
"I'm actually happier than for any of my wins," said Pogačar, who added he was recovering from a sore throat.
Selected overall standings after Stage 15
"With all the ice we're having [to cool down from the heat] and the air conditioning, half of the peloton has a sore throat. It's a pain."
The top riders stayed quiet all day, Pogačar slowing down after Lipowitz and Vingegaard were caught up behind an early crash.
It was a hectic stage with relentless attacks from riders looking to capitalise on the rare opportunity of a victory as flat and mountain stages are the exclusive domain of top sprinters and general classification contenders.
The group who would fight for the win took shape after more than 100 kilometres and Wellens was not only the stronger rider, he was also the smartest.
Having done very little in the breakaway — one of the perks of riding for the yellow jersey holder — Wellens attacked on a slightly uphill section, catching everyone off guard.
The 34-year-old attacked and the chasing group quickly disappeared into the background as he sped to his maiden Tour de France win to complete his grand tour stage victory collection after prevailing in the Giro d'Italia in 2016 and 2018 and in the Vuelta a Espana in 2020.
Monday is a rest day on the Tour de France, in Montpellier.
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In 2013, his dominance was equal to that of some of the all-time greats, an imperious climb towards his first overall title. But. in 2016, he was forced to run up the climb, in the yellow jersey, after a collision with a motorbike in the chaos of the crowds — surely one of the Tour's most remarkable moments. That day the race was shortened due to the blustering Mistral winds howling across the summit — one of the other dangers in this region. The Mistral, legends say, is the son of the Celtic god, Vintur, who was worshipped in pre-Roman times by the Albiques. It is said he playfully blows, causing mischief, unless that trickery no longer sates him and he becomes violent, whipping pebbles up from the ground and tossing them into unassuming adventurers. In 2021 the Tour came up Ventoux twice in a single day — an act of such boldness that surely it risked angering the cycling gods who hold sway in this impossible region. Incredibly, Belgian puncheur Wout van Aert — who also won the sprint on the Champs-Élysées and that year's time trial — claimed victory as behind him the favourites Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard laid gloves on each other. A puncheur winning on the climbers' biggest prize? Perhaps the gods do have a sense of humour after all. Vingegaard had the better of Pogačar when the road went up that day, but the Slovenian managed to regain contact before the race finish and went on to claim a second successive yellow jersey in Paris. As the peloton roars up its slopes for stage 16 on Tuesday, it will, again, be Vingegaard and Pogačar doing battle, adding their own layer of stories to this impossible mountain. The race will all be about Mont Ventoux — there are roughly 150km of almost pan-flat roads from Montpellier to the base of the climb proper in Bédoin. After that, the gloves will come off and the race will be on, this mythic monument ready to stamp its mark on another set of intrepid — and perhaps a little mad — riders.
