Tour de France 2019: Stage 15
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 15 of the Tour de France, another mountain stage from Limoux to Foix – Prat d'Albis.
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Today's stage starts in just under half an hour, when the riders will begin the neutralised section in Limoux.
There are four more mountains on the menu today – three first-category climbs and one second cat. It's another summit finish too.
Foix has hosted a Tour stage finish on three occasions before, though all coming in the town with a flat finish, rather than up the Prat d'Albis. The climb makes its Tour debut today.
In 2008 and 2012, the break succeeded in Foix, with Kurt-Asle Arvesen and Luis León Sánchez winning. In 2017, Warren Barguil won a fast and furious 101km stage which was notable for long-range attacks from Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana.
Here's Ineos DS Nicolas Portal on yesterday's stage and the team's prospects for today.
"If it’s the only bad day he’s going to have, then we’re happy with this.
"It’s true that Michał [Kwiatkowski] and Gianni [Moscon] underperformed a little bit. They’re human and there has also been some difficult days with the TT and the heat.
"We’re not feeling any special pressure whatsoever. We’ll keep fighting. Geraint is all good. We’re confident in Gianni and Michał also. All the guys are pretty motivated.
"You can feel yesterday that some teams thought let’s take responsibility and that’s good for us. You have to try something. It’s an exciting race and it’s not always up to us to control. People have to keep going and make the race interesting and hard."
And here's Geraint Thomas on how he's feeling ahead of another mountain stage.
"I didn’t feel great most of the day really. It was ok, I managed to limit my losses.
"I knew the hardest 400 metres of the climb were the last 400, so I just let them go and tried to pace myself. It was the decision I made at the time and I think it was best thing to do.
"I tried to fuel well last night, eat and drink a lot. We’ll see how it goes today. If I feel good then I’ll try to get a bit of time back."
There's a good chance that the break is free to contest the victory today.
Look out for names like Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Pello Bilbao (Astana), Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), Vincenzo Nibali, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) – basically any climber who is out of the GC picture – to go on the attack.
Basically there's a revolving cast of riders at the front of the peloton making an effort and then looking around to see they haven't gotten away.
180km remaining from 185km
He gets a gap with Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) but shakes his head when he turns around to see the peloton close behind.
Wellens, Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-Merida) are among the riders with Schär and Cort as Peter Sagan makes the move across.
172km remaining from 185km
Damiano Caruso, Andrea Pasqualon and Sven Erik Bystrøm had a go but their attempt didn't work out. Still, attacks fly.
Now four men have a small advantage. They are Daniel Oss, Nicolas Roche, Lukasz Wisniowski and Benoît Cosnefroy.
168km remaining from 185km
The Oss group has a decent gap now. It's exactly the strongest group if this is the break of the day.
Behind, Rein Taaramäe is among the attackers along with Haller.
Katusha are really having a go here. Haller, Würtz Schmidt and now Politt have tried to break away. The under-threat team really need something, anything, from this Tour de France.
160km remaining from 185km
There's no separation between the riders attempting attacks and the peloton at the moment.
Among the riders in the group are...
Vincenzo Nibali, Peter Sagan, Ilnur Zakarin, Rein Taaramäe, Simon Yates, Romain Bardet, Thomas De Gendt, Kasper Asgreen, Patrick Konrad, Daniel Oss, Jack Haig, Jesús Herrada, Bauke Mollema
143km remaining from 185km
Wellens is among the riders dropped from the peloton. His group is 54 seconds down. No KOM points for him today, then.
Quintana has Soler and Amador with him in the group. Gallopin, Molard, Woods, Geschke, Jansen, Herrada, Dan Martin, Kämna are also up there.
This looks like the makeup of the break right now.
Nairo Quintana, Marc Soler, Andrey Amador (Movistar)
Vincenzo Nibali, Jan Tratnik, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida)
Alexey Lutsenko, Omar Fraile (Astana)
Romain Bardet, Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale)
Sebastien Reichenbach, Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ)
Bauke Mollema, Giulio Ciccone, Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo)
Lennard Kämna, Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb)
Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert)
Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates)
Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin)
Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Michael Woods (EF Education First)
Simon Geschke (CCC Team)
Jesus Herrada (Cofidis)
Roman Kreuziger (Dimension Data)
Amund Jansen (Jumbo-Visma)
Amael Moinard (Arkea-Samsic)
The break are two minutes up on the peloton now.
There are eight chasers – Frank, Matthews, Sicard, Perichon, Politt, Bouet and Perez.
124km remaining from 185km
Woods takes the points at the top of the climb ahead of Nibali and Bardet.
113km remaining from 185km
The chasers have made it up to the break now. 36 riders out front. They're 2:25 up.
It looks like Lotto Soudal, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Team Ineos are the only teams with no riders in the move.
Asgreen, Mørkøv, Richeze and Viviani are all at the head of the peloton. There's just over a kilometre to go until the bunch sprint in– ah, wait a minute...
Bahrain-Merida DS Tristan Hoffman on getting Nibali into the break today...
"He was a little bit sick and then he found his legs back. Yesterday was a good try but the peloton had a crazy speed.
"It's a very good move today. Quintana's there so they keep pulling in the peloton. He's motivated and we will go for it."
The riders are in the valley for around another 25km now which is good for QuickStep, who barely have any riders to work on the climbs.
Four trains on the front of the peloton. The entire QuickStep team lead Ineos, who lead Jumbo, while Movistar are lined out behind.
92km remaining from 185km
Wellens is back in the peloton now. The race has really calmed down in the valley.
Caruso tried to race ahead and take the points at the intermediate sprint in order to give some protection to teammate Sonny Colbrelli's placing. Matthews easily outsprints the Italian and Nils Politt, though,
The Australian now moves up to a very distant third in the points classification.
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78km remaining from 185km
Nils Politt is pushing on at the front of the break. Numerous riders follow.
Quintana is not doing well. Moves are going and he's not following them.
Woods and Guillaume Martin are riding away from the break towards the leaders.
Bardet, Yates, Gallopin, Molard, Reichenbach, Roche, Kamna, Lutsenko, Dan Martin and Kreuziger are in the lead group now.
68km remaining from 185km
And to round the lead group off, Fraile and Guillaume Martin are also up there.
66km remaining from 185km
The Quintana quintet is back with the leaders. Fraile has nipped off the front.
Alaphilippe still have four men with him in the peloton. Viviani is still there working on the front, somehow!!
Richie Porte is off the back of the peloton. He's making it back easily though, so was maybe visiting the team car.
52km remaining from 185km
Woods has some problem with his wheel, I think. He's bumping around on the bike as he descends.
Enric Mas is reportedly five minutes down on the peloton already. He must be ill today.
As you can see, the climb is a pretty easy to start, then normalises, while the final 3.3km average brutal double-digit gradients.
We should see a slimmed-down break at the top, while it could be carnage in the peloton. Viviani probably won't last on the front...
46km remaining from 185km
With Reichenbach and Molard out front, could Pinot try something on this climb? Alaphilippe, Bernal, Thomas, Kruijswijk and Buchmann have nobody to help them, of course.
Two men left for Alaphilippe now. Viviani finally drops away on the 6 per cent section midway up the climb.
41km remaining from 185km
Lampaert drops away in the peloton too.
Geschke and the break are on the steepest part of the climb now. 3km from the top.
Astana and Ineos mob the front as Alaphilippe has just one man with him. The peloton is really thinning out here.
Amador drops too.
All the favourites are the in the 'peloton' now. Alaphilippe, Kruijswijk, Bennett, De Plus, Porte, Thomas, Bernal, Poels, Pinot, Uran, Kangert, Barguil, Buchmann, Valverde.
Simon Yates attacked the break and it has fallen to pieces up front.
Reichenbach, Bardet, Quintana and Lutsenko are the third group on the road.
Landa is briefly profiting from his teammates dropping back from the break. No time gap to him at the moment.
Landa is with Soler over the top, 20 seconds up on the GC men.
Quintana's group is 15 seconds down on Geschke and Simon Yates.
It's straight down into the valley now. And then the riders will go straight back up again from Foix. Here's the final climb of the day, which the leaders will hit in just under 20 kilometres.
The peloton are 3 minutes down now, and 50 seconds behind Landa. Meanwhile, Bardet's group is losing more time. They're 40 seconds down.
Riders are getting back onto the GC group on the descent, including Gaudu. The group will thin out again once the road heads uphill though.
23km remaining from 185km
Bardet and Quintana have left Lutsenko and Reichenbach behind on the descent. Reichenbach will likely wait up for Pinot if the FDJ leader attacks later on anyway.
The Bardet-Quintana group has been hopeless. They've lost a minute on the two men out front since the top of the climb.
Maybe 20-25 riders in the GC group. Groupama-FDJ are on the front, while Ineos have regained Dylan Van Baarle.
Here's a look at the 2020 Olympics Test Event results, if you're interested in reading them right now.
Bardet, Reichenbach, Lutsenko are in his wheel.
When Landa made the catch he just went straight past Quintana. It doesn't look like the Colombian did any work.
6km remaining from 185km
Gaudu is grimacing under th effort he's putting out. Barguil struggles at the back, so does Uran.
1:20 for Thomas, Kruijswijk and Valverde.
Stage result
1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 4:47:04
2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:33
3 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team
4 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:51
5 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos
6 Lennard Kämna (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:01:03
7 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:22
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
9 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:30
General classification after stage 15
1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 61:00:22
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:35
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:47
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:50
5 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 0:02:02
6 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:14
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:54
8 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:05:00
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:05:27
10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First 0:05:33
Thomas after the finish.
"It’s kind of a difficult one, tactics-wise, because I wanted to go, I had the legs to go but I wasn’t going to chase down Egan with the guys in the wheel."
Here's what Simon Yates had to say after the stage.
"Today was the other day that I would have had a chance, so nothing really changed for me. I was just taking it with both hands. Adam was not really great yesterday, but he's a great rider and he'll be back. No worries about that.
"I'm very tired now, that one took a lot of effort. There are some more chances, we'll see what it holds."
Alaphilippe after the finish.
"It's one more day in yellow, I'm happy. It was my goal to keep the yellow. I'm really happy I still have it for the rest day and the next stage, but it will be a really hard last week. I just want to enjoy."
Tour de France: Stage 15 finish line quotes
Reaction from Thibaut Pinot, Simon Yates, Geraint Thomas and more
Keep checking back on Cyclingnews through the evening for more reaction and news from stage 15 of the Tour de France.
We've updated our quotes article with more from Egan Bernal, Rigoberto Urán and other key protagonists from stage 15.
Click through to read about how they got on in the final day in the Pyrenees.
Tour de France: Geraint Thomas rallies but Pinot and Bernal threats continue to escalate
Alaphilippe starts to crack but Pinot and Bernal pose different questions
Landa regains momentum in Tour with long-distance attack
Basque claims third on stage, climbs to seventh overall
Bernal: Geraint Thomas told me to ride my own Tour de France
Colombian on the rise as the race leaves the Pyrenees
Alaphilippe 'starting to pay' for Tour de France efforts
Frenchman holds onto yellow jersey on Prat d'Albis but first cracks appear in the armour
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