Tour de France 2024 Stage 15

July 14, 2024 Almost 200KM and 4,800M of climbing awaited the riders on a classic Pyrenean mountain day on Bastille Day. The race started straight up the Col de Peyresourde and it took only about 400M before the first riders were dropped from the peloton. David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ took the most mountains points on the Peyresourde with Oier Lazkano of Movistar and Romain Bardet of DSM-Firmenich just behind. Their lead was narrow, less than 20 seconds back to the peloton of around 60 riders. The trio were caught in the valley road and a new group formed with around 20 riders. They hit the Col de Menté with just over 1 minute, being chased by DSM-Firmenich and EF-Education Easypost who had missed the move. Richard Carapaz of EF-Education Easypost was able to make it to the break with the help of his teammate Rui Costa with 6KM to climb and Ben Healy of EF-Education Easypost and Simon Yates of Jayco AlUla bridged up with 2.5KM to climb. Javier Romo of Movistar led the break over the Col de Menté with 1 minute 45 seconds on the peloton. Next on the route was the Col de Portet d'Aspet. Bob Jungles of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe sacrificed himself in the break for his teammate Jai Hindley. They rode hard on the d'Aspet but only had 1 minute 10 seconds as Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility led them across the summit. Down the 55KM of valley road, the break expanded their lead to over 3 minutes 30 seconds due to the horse power of Jungles and Matteo Sobrero of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. 4KM before the start of the Col d'Agnes, a rider left the wheel go halfway down the break and 7 riders made the front with 8 stuck behind. The second half lost a full minute before the climb and only Carapaz was able to make it back to the front. Four riders went over the Col d'Agnes together including Laurens De Plus of Ineos who took the points, Enric Mas of Movistar, Hindley, and Carapaz. They had 40 seconds on chaser Johannessen and 3 minutes 15 seconds on the peloton. Johannessen did a great ride to bridge to the front on the Port de Lers to make 5 riders for the 35KM trip to the base of the finishing climb of Plateau de Beille. The five leaders hit the base of Plateau de Beille with 2 minutes 30 seconds. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike did the damage early on the climb, dropping riders between 5th and 10th on GC and pulling a full minute back on the break within 2KM. Jorgenson pulled until only his teammate Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar of UAE, and Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep remained. He finished his turn at 10.7KM to go and Vingegaard sent his attack. Evenepoel did not try to follow but Pogačar was quick to get on the wheel. Mas, Carapaz, and Johannessen were caught with 9.2KM to go, leaving Pogačar and Vingegaard alone for another duel. Vingegaard set his pace on the front to try and wear down Pogačar but Pogačar never budged. The first time Vingegaard looked back was with 5.3KM to go. Pogačar sensed that Vingegaard was weakening and went on the attack. Vingegaard dropped his head as Pogačar danced away. With 2KM to go, Pogačar had 40 seconds on Vingegaard and over 2 minutes on Evenepoel. Pogačar crossed the line with his 14th career stage win at the Tour. He put in 1 minute 8 seconds into Vingegaard and 2 minutes 51 seconds into Evenepoel and now holds a commanding lead overall of 3 minutes 9 seconds.