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.

You can read our report on that stage in 2017 here.

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."

The peloton will roll out in a few minutes.

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.

185km remaining from 185km

The peloton passes km0 and the flag is waved. Stage 15 is underway!

A number of riders are on the attack straight away. De Gendt is leading the charge.

Mohorič, Wellens are up there too. Nothing has gone yet.

Dylan Teuns, Simon Geschke, Mads Würtz Schmidt and Oliver Naesen are at the front too.

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.

Herrada now puts in a bigger effort. 

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.

Now CCC's Michael Schär has a go with Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana).

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.

Marco Haller is on the move now.

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.

There's 15 seconds between the peloton and the current lead group.

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.

165km remaining from 185km

The peloton bears down on Oss, Roche and co.

163km remaining from 185km

Still, the four men fight but the peloton are getting closer.

And they're caught.

CCC are trying again, this time with Van Avermaet, along with Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha.

160km remaining from 185km

There's no separation between the riders attempting attacks and the peloton at the moment.

Michael Woods (EF) has a go.

Marc Soler (Movistar) is also getting involved up front.

158km remaining from 185km

Omar Fraile and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) are on the attack.

Dylan Teuns works his way across to Lutsenko.

157km remaining from 185km

They're brought back and still more attacks go.

Now CCC send another man up the road.

155km remaining from 185km

Serge Pauwels can't get much of an advantage either.

The peloton are still 30km from the top of the first climb of the day, the Col de Monséguir.

Simon Yates, Vincenzo Nibali and Jesús Herrada try to get away. That's more like it.

152km remaining from 185km

That group didn't get away. Still we wait.

De Gendt is back on the front now.

Peter Sagan is in third wheel as the peloton descend through a village.

Riders are already dropping off the back of the peloton. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) is back there.

147km remaining from 185km

A large group has got some space up front.

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

146km remaining from 185km

They only have a small gap though.

And they're brought back...

Oss and De Gendt try again.

More riders chase.

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.

We're around 10km from the base of the day's first climb.

140km remaining from 185km

We're 45km into the stage and no move has gone away.

Pauwels tries again.

137km remaining from 185km

De Gendt on the front again.

135km remaining from 185km

50km raced now.

The riders are almost on the first climb of the day.

Damiano Caruso is on the attack.

Magnus Cort, Amund Jansen and Lennard Kämna join Caruso.

The peloton catch the group as the climb starts...

130km remaining from 185km

The peloton are a kilometre into the climb and still no moves have gone.

Simon Yates and Lutsenko lead another move.

Zakarin, Ciccone, Bardet, Konrad are also there.

It looks like this might finally be the break of the day.

Around 20-25 men are away.

More riders are trying to get across though.

Reichenbach, Tratnik, Nibali are also in the move.

Kreuziger, Fraile, a few guys from Movistar are also there. Maybe Quintana...

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.

Jansen was in the chase group but is dropping back now.

Deceuninck-QuickStep work on the front of the peloton.

Richeze leads the peloton over the top. They're three minutes down.

The chasers are closing in on the lead break now.

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...

105km remaining from 185km

2:35 between break and peloton.

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.

100km remaining from 185km

The break pass into the final 100km of the stage.

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.

87km remaining from 185km

2:40 for the break with 87km to race.

The break split up after that intermediate sprint but they're all back together now.

Here's a shot of today's break.

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78km remaining from 185km

Nils Politt is pushing on at the front of the break. Numerous riders follow.

75km remaining from 185km

The break begin the Port de Lers.

Matthews is dropping away early on. His job is already done, of course.

17 seconds between the two break groups now.

Yates heads off the front. Reichenbach leads that front group behind him.

Bouet, Nibali, Politt, Perez are struggling.

Mollema and Zakarin are also suffering.

Jansen, Frank, Konrad also dropping.

73km remaining from 185km

Lutsenko, Reichenbach, Yates and Molard are up front.

Mas seems to be dropping from the peloton already?? Meanwhile Viviani is still up front...

Quintana and Bardet have bridged from the main break to the lead group.

The peloton are 3:50 down on the leaders now.

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.

Woods and Amador too.

Ciccone and Herrada are in that lead group too.

68km remaining from 185km

And to round the lead group off, Fraile and Guillaume Martin are also up there.

Dan Martin drops from the lead group now.

He gradually works his way back though.

Astana lead that lead group. FDJ are sitting in, and surely have plans for Pinot later on.

Five minutes between the break and the peloton. Quintana's group is 15 seconds down.

Quintana has Bernard, Gallopin, Geschke, Soler with him.

66km remaining from 185km

The Quintana quintet is back with the leaders. Fraile has nipped off the front.

65km remaining from 185km

5:22 between leaders and peloton. 65km to race.

Alaphilippe still have four men with him in the peloton. Viviani is still there working on the front, somehow!!

Bardet attacks at the top of the climb. He's going for polka dots after collapsing yesterday.

Richie Porte is off the back of the peloton. He's making it back easily though, so was maybe visiting the team car.

Nibali is caught by the peloton.

Matthews and Mollema are also caught.

60km remaining from 185km

The peloton crest the Port du Lers, 5:15 down.

Quintana is second in the virtual GC right now.

12 KOM points for Bardet so far today. Michael Woods has picked up 7.

Michael Woods seems to have a mechanical problem on the descent.

52km remaining from 185km

Woods has some problem with his wheel, I think. He's bumping around on the bike as he descends.

The leaders are almost at the bottom of the descent now. The next climb starts almost immediately.

Here's the profile for the next climb, the Mur de Péguère.

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.

4:15 for the break now.

Devenyns, Lampaert, Viviani and Asgreen are still with Alaphilippe in the peloton.

Geschke puts in an attack up front.

43km remaining from 185km

He's 15 seconds up on the break,

3:35 between the peloton and break now.

42km remaining from 185km

Impey, Zakarin, Nibali drop from the peloton.

Two men left for Alaphilippe now. Viviani finally drops away on the 6 per cent section midway up the climb.

Bilbao, Fraile, Roche drop from the break.

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.

Bernard drops from the break.

Jumbo-Visma have moved to the front of the peloton too.

Astana are pushing the pace. And Landa attacks!

Adam Yates is dropped.

This is brutal. The peloton is very small already.

Herrada is struggling in the break.

Amador drops too.

40km remaining from 185km

Landa is 15 seconds up on the peloton. He has Fuglsang for company.

Kwiatkowski is gone from the peloton.

35 seconds for Geschke.

Molard drops from the break.

Jumbo-Visma work at the head of the peloton, dragging Fuglsang back.

Gaudu is dropped from the peloton now. Aru 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.

38km remaining from 185km

Yates is almost with Geschke now. They're near the top.

Landa is briefly profiting from his teammates dropping back from the break. No time gap to him at the moment.

Fuglsang and Aru are in the GC group (missed them off earlier).

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.

Bardet chastises the riders he's with. He turns around to shout at them to work with him.

33km remaining from 185km

The chase group isn't making much headway on the descent.

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.

It's foggy at the top of the climb and on the descent. Not ideal conditions.

Another six points for Bardet over the top of that climb. He has 18 in total today.

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.

Quintana and Bardet are almost a minute down now.

Landa has Soler and Amador with him on the descent.

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.

A minute between the leaders and the chasers. Landa is 2:20 back, the peloton a further 1:10 down.

Lutsenko and Reichenbach are back with Quintana and Bardet now as they hit the valley.

Yates has led Geschke down much of the descent and is still powering the duo onwards.

Landa has nearly 1:30 on the peloton now.

The Sagan and Wellens group is 15:30 behind the front of the race, in case you were wondering. 

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.

16km remaining from 185km

Geschke and Yates are 4km from the climb.

The Quintana-Bardet group has been caught by the remains of the break.

Here's a look at the final climb of the day once again.

11km remaining from 185km

Geschke and Yates hit the climb.

The Bardet-Quintana group is 1:35 down.

Here's a look at the 2020 Olympics Test Event results, if you're interested in reading them right now.

Landa has a minute on the peloton. He's 2:10 down on the leaders.

Bora, Jumbo and FDJ work at the front of the peloton.

Amador pulls off the Landa train, his work done.

Soler and Landa are just 20 seconds down on Quintana's group now.

10km remaining from 185km

Soler is done now. It's up to Landa now.

Jumbo-Visma pile on the pace behind.

Alaphilippe is quite far down the GC group, but looks comfortable.

9km remaining from 185km

Landa catches Quintana now.

1:30 from the Simons to the chasers. Another minute back to the GC men.

8km remaining from 185km

Yates has gone! He jumped away from Geschke.

Landa is pulling at the front of the chase group.

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.

Kämna is the only man who can follow Landa. Bardet is struggling.

1:25 between Landa and Yates. The peloton lies 1:05 further back.

7km remaining from 185km

Gaudu and Pinot take to the front of the GC group.

Bennett pulls off, his work done.

Kämna is just about clinging on to Landa here. Yates still alone.

7km remaining from 185km

Stragglers from the break are brought back now. Lutsenko is caught.

Landa has dropped Kämna.

6km remaining from 185km

Gaudu is grimacing under th effort he's putting out. Barguil struggles at the back, so does Uran.

Martin and Bardet are caught by the GC group.

6km remaining from 185km

Landa catches Geschke. He's 1:05 down now.

6km remaining from 185km

Landa sails past the German.

And Pinot attacks!

Pinot flies away from the peloton onto Reichenbach's wheel.

Thomas, Fuglsang, Valverde, Kruijswijk are dropped.

Bernal, Alaphilippe and Buchmann are with Pinot.

5km remaining from 185km

Reichenbach puts in a big turn for Pinot.

Pinot goes again!

Bernal, Alaphilippe follow with Buchmann close behind.

5km remaining from 185km

Alaphilippe cracks!

Pinot, Bernal and Buchmann are away

Wow, what a climb. Pinot is flying.

Alaphilippe is trying his best. He's ten seconds down now.

Pinot catches Kamna.

Landa is making no headway into Yates' lead.

Pinot continues to push on.

Buchmann is dropped by Pinot and Bernal.

4km remaining from 185km

Bernal loses ground to Pinot.

Pinot is crushing it.

The Thomas group is catching Alaphilippe.

Pinot is relentless, out of the saddle attacking.

3km remaining from 185km

Alaphilippe is back with Thomas' group now.

40 seconds between Pinot and the yellow jersey.

2km remaining from 185km

Pinot is about to catch Landa.

A minute between Pinot and Alaphilippe/Thomas and co

Kruijswijk attacks the GC chase group.

This is a great climb.

It's raining at the top.

Kämna is with Bernal and Buchmann. What a ride from him today.

2km remaining from 185km

Yates has 2km to go.

Pinot catches Landa now.

Poels, Kruijswijk, Porte, Thomas, Valverde, Alaphilippe are still together, 2:05 down.

1km remaining from 185km

Thomas and Kruijswijk attack! Alaphilippe is done!

1km remaining from 185km

Yates reaches the flamme rouge.

Thomas, Kruijswijk, Valverde and Porte battle thorugh the rain. Poels sits on Alaphilippe.

Final kilometre for Pinot and Landa.

Yates takes the stage win comfortably.

Pinot takes second, 30 seconds down.

Landa third. Bernal and Buchmann 50 seconds down.

1:20 for Thomas, Kruijswijk and Valverde.

Alaphilippe and Poels cross the line 1:50 down.

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 a shot of Yates crossing the line for his second win of the race.

And here's the man who made the biggest gains on the day, Thibaut Pinot.

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."

Our full report from stage 15, as well a gallery and full results, is up now.

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