Remco Evenepoel won Stage 15 of the Tour de France on Sunday on a day of upheaval, besting overall race leader Tadej Pogacar on the mountain route and sliding into second place in the race for the yellow jersey entering the final week.
From Belgium, Evenepoel jumped into second with the withdrawal of Jonas Vingegaard from the race.
Vingegaard, of Denmark, was about 20 kilometers from the end of the 183.9-kilometer stretch from Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison when he was part of a small group of riders who fell. While some cyclists were able to continue, medics put Vingegaard’s right arm in a sling and he climbed into an ambulance. He was diagnosed with a fractured collarbone.
He is a two-time champion, winning the 2022 and 2023 events. Early Sunday morning, he and Pogacar were woken up for drug tests by drug testers for the International Testing Agency.
“Last night, Jonas had doping control at 2 a.m. in the morning and this got me thinking, maybe you are less concentrated after your sleep was ruined,” Pogacar told Eurosport. I don’t blame that but it could be connected. It was sad to see him leave.”
“Jonas Vingegaard has been forced to withdraw from the Tour de France after crashing towards the end of Stage 15,” his team posted on X.
For Evenepoel, it was his first road win at the Tour, accomplished when he sprinted past Pogacar on the final climb.
With the final group of three — Evenepoel, Pogacar and Isaac del Toro of Mexico — approaching the end, neither opponent could get past Evenepoel.
The third-place finish was good enough to move del Toro into third place overall.
Pogacar’s lead is five minutes exactly over Evenepoel, 5:58 ahead of del Toro. Paul Seixas of France and Florian Lipowitz of Germany round out the top five, both at least six minutes out of the lead.
The gap between Pogacar and 10th-place Jordan Jegat of France has grown to 19:26.
Evenepoel was thrilled with the stage win.
“It’s amazing, I’m literally trembling from emotion,” he said. “It’s been a hell of a day, a pretty hard start, I was actually feeling really bad in the beginning. I really got better and better during the day.”
And he understands just what he is up against in the final week of competition. Monday is a day of rest before a 26.1-km time trial from Evian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains in Stage 16 on Tuesday.
“You have to understand I’m racing with the best guy ever,” he said of Pogacar. “He has been doing a hell of a climb to try to win the stage with Isaac, and for me it’s a big step forward that I can follow this pace. I always get so many critics about ‘He cannot stand steep climbs, this and that’, and it feels amazing, just towards myself, everybody around me, it means a lot.”
–Field Level Media
