Tour de France: Kuss wins stage 15 in Andorra

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Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) won the first big Tour de France mountain stage in the Pyrenees, as attacks from the break of the day and amongst overall contenders produced some entertaining high-altitude racing on the road to Andorra. 

Ineos Grenadiers tried to shake up the race on the 2408-metre-high Port d'Envalira climb and Richard Carapaz made an attack on the final Col de Beixalis. That isolated Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) but he then coolly let the other riders attack each other for the podium spots, launching a couple of warning attacks and then sticking to Jonas Vingegaard’s wheel when the Jumbo-Visma rider tried a move. 

His teammate Kuss was more successful from the select-rider break that went away from the start of the 191.3km stage. He quickly got a gap on the steep, twisting slopes of the Col de Beixalis and then dived down to Andorra la Vielle to win alone. 

The young American managed to hold off a chase by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who finished 23 second behind him. Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) won the sprint for third place at 1:15, ahead of the remains of the high-quality breakaway but did enough in the race for mountain points to take the polka-dot jersey from Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation). 

Pogačar was in total control of his rivals and maintained his five-minute overall lead with apparent ease. The big loser of the day was Frenchman Guillaume Martin (Cofidis). He had moved up to second overall thanks to being in the break on stage 14 on Saturday but paid for his efforts and lost contact with his GC rivals today. He finished 3:54 down on his GC rivals and so slipped to ninth at 7:58.

Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo) is back up to second place at 5:18, with Vingegaard third at 5:32.

Behind Pogačar, five riders are within a minute as they fight for the podium spots. Carapaz is only 15 seconds behind Urán, Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) is at 40 seconds and Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) is sixth overall at 58 seconds.

Kuss is the first American rider to win a Tour de France for a decade and won at his home in Andorra.

“It's incredible. I'm lost for words. To be honest, I've really suffered a lot in this Tour, I just didn't feel I had the spice in the legs. Today I knew it was finishing where I live, and I was really motivated. Finally I had really good legs again so I'm so happy,” Kuss said after his victory.

"It was a hard day in the break. I know the final climb fairly well. I actually don't ride it so much in training because it's so hard but I knew the beginning was tough so I knew if I went there and got a gap then I could try and hold it to the finish. 

"It means a lot. I still can't believe I'm in the Tour de France, much less winning a stage. It's really incredible. I'm lost for words." 

How it unfolded

The peloton gathered in the Céret, the cherry capital of France, tired from two weeks of racing but knowing there was nothing sweet about the stage due to the long hot day in the saddle and 4500 metres of climbing in the Pyrenees up to the micro-state of Andorra. 

For a number of Andorra-based riders, the stage was taking them to their homes but that was of little comfort. A total of 149 riders started the stage, meaning 35 riders have abandoned or missed the time cut, since the start of the Tour. The last time that happened after only 14 days of racing was back in 2012.

However the fatigue of racing for 14 days did not stop the attacks when the flag dropped for the start of the 191.3km stage.

New polka-dot jersey wearer Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) was the first to move on the non-categorised climb that rose from the start. Others soon took off after him to follow the expected script of a quality breakaway fighting for the stage victory. 

Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) joined Woods, as did Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroën) and then Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) all surged across to the move. 

Over the top of the climb and on the fast valley road a break of 34 riders formed. In there were: Steven Kruijswijk, Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Jonathan Castroviejo, Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Dan Martin, Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Vincenzo Nibali, Julien Bernard, Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo), Julian Alaphilippe, Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), David Gaudu, Bruno Armirail, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Rubén Fernández (Cofidis), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citröen),  Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Ruben Guerreiro, Neilson Powless (EF Education-Nippo), Mark Donovan (Team DSM), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Matej Mohoric, Wout Poels, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious), Michael Matthews (BikeExchange), Ion Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech), Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-NextHash), Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels p/b KTM).

It was interesting to see Jumbo-Visma leave Jonas Vingegaard alone in the peloton, risking his GC position for a possible stage victory and Van Aert’s shot at the polka-dot jersey. UAE Team Emirates had little choice to let the break go, fortunate that no one was an overall threat to Pogačar or anyone else in the top 10. 

Vegard Stake Laengen was the first to do the work on the front, with Rui Costa, Marc Hirschi, Mikkel Bjerg Brandon McNulty, and Rafal Majka lined out behind him and ahead of Pogačar.  

Matthews was in the break to sweep up maximum points at the intermediate sprint after 70km and he won the dash to the line ahead of De Gendt and Ballerini, who was trying to defend Cavendish’s lead. The Manxman has 279 points, with Matthews second with 207 but was fighting his own battle of survival in the gruppetto.

The peloton was at 8:30 at the intermediate sprint point and the gap grew as the long Montée de Mont-Louis climb began. However Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) was out of the back alone and soon climbed off. He had been dropped early and was suffering from the injuries of his crash on stage 13. There was no chance for him to hang tough at the Tour any longer.

Groupama-FDJ drove the pace on the Montée de Mont-Louis in the break but it was Poels who won the sprint at the top for the 10 mountain points. Van Aert and Woods challenged him but only scored 8 and 6 points respectively. 

At the top of the Montée de Mont-Louis the break reformed, with the peloton at 9:30. The racing in the break and the peloton was still tactical at this point. 

In the long valley road to Andorra, the break stayed together, with Van Aert taking the sprint atop the Col de Puymorens climb on the way to the higher Port d'Envalira. He beat Poels and Woods to edge near the polka-dot jersey but the three are locked in a fierce fight for every point.  

Suffering in the high Pyrenees

The gradual climbing into the Pyrenees hurt in the head and cross winds, as did the altitude of the Port d'Envalira. It is the highest pass in the Pyrenees at 2408 metres and was always going to be a key part of the stage and this year’s Tour de France.

When the 10.7km climb began to hurt, Ineos Grenadiers put Richie Porte on the front to up the pace and Movistar also joined in. That shook out the UAE Team Emirates domestiques, leaving Pogačar to just sit on the wheels and hope he avoided any problems.

The riders crossed into Andorra with 50km to race and half of the Port d'Envalira to climb. The pace on the peloton brought the gap down but the break was still seven minutes clear and still with a strong chance of fighting for the break. 

First came the fight for the Port d'Envalira points. Woods tried a move with 2.7km to the summit but later Quintana showed who was the real pure climber by surging away before the summit. He took 20 points and the special Henri Desgrange prize for being first to the highest climb of the race. Van Aert took second at the summit, ahead of Poels, who took the virtual lead in the mountains competition with 68 points. Quintana moved up to fourth with 60 points.

Over the top of the Port d'Envalira, Ineos called back Jonathan Castroviejo and Dylan van Baarle as they began to lay out their stage tactics. Suddenly the peloton was only 5:25 down on the break.

Kwiatkowski and Thomas lead the pace for Carapaz with only a dozen of the best GC riders hanging onto their coat tails. Guillaume Martin slipped off the back and forced to chase on the windy, 22km descent to Encamp and the final steep climb of Col de Beixalis. He cruelly paid for his efforts and lost his top five position. 

During the descent to the foot of the Col de Beixalis several riders dropped back from the break to help their teammates in the GC group. Kruijswijk dropped back to help Vingegaard, while Pöstlberger eased up to help Kelderman. Castroviejo and van Baarle joined Thomas and Carapaz, with Pogačar, Mas, Vingegaard, Kruijswijk, Urán, O'Connor, Lutsenko, Kelderman, Postlberger, Bilbao, Chaves, Higuita and Meintjes there. 

The final attacks on the Col de Beixalis 

As the Col de Beixalis began the 20-strong breakaway blew apart, with Quintana first to attack on the steep early slopes. However he soon blew up and the stronger riders rode past the Colombian with little pity.

Gaudu took off his mitts as he turned aggressive but Kuss was the first to really get away with 10km to race and 4.5km to climb. He stomped on the pedals as he excited each of the steep hairpins and opened a 20-second gap on the others. It was clear he was on the way to victory. 

Behind Carapaz was the first to attack from the GC group to complete the Ineos strategy. However it again made little impact and Pogačar, and then most of  the other GC riders, closed him down.

Later Pogačar accelerated twice to show his dominance and hurt his rivals. Then Vingegaard tried twice to hurt the Slovenian as he had over the top of Mont Ventoux. However, Pogačar looked in control on his wheel, as did the other GC Urán, Carapaz and Mas.

As the  climb eased, O’Connor tried to attack to jump up in the top five but was also kept in check. Up front Kuss dived down the descent to finish in Andorra La Vieille, holding off Valverde and so stopping the Spaniard from becoming the oldest ever stage winner. That record remains with Pino Cerami. 

Van Aert led home the Pogačar and the podium rivals group some 4:51 down on Kuss, with the remainder of the break in between them and the peloton spread across 40 minutes. 

Mark Cavendish made it home inside the time limit to keep the green points jersey. He and all the other riders can now enjoy a well-deserved rest day in Andorra on Monday, with the racing in the Pyrenees returning on Tuesday with a 169km mountain stage over the Col de Portet- d’Aspet to Saint Gaudens.