Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) joined the elite club of riders who have won stages in all three Grand Tours after securing a 40km solo victory on stage 15 at the Tour de France.
The Belgian Champion attacked from the day's breakaway over the top of the final climb, Pas du Sant, and after high-fiving fans on the final straight, crossed the finish line 1:06 ahead of runner-up and solo chaser Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike).
"It is a very special victory. Everyone knows the Tour de France and everyone wants to ride the Tour de France, and not many people win at the Tour de France, so it is a very beautiful victory," said Wellens, who had already won two stages at both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España during his career.
"I felt super good before the stage. Before the stage, Nils [Politt] and me were laughing a little bit that we would go in the break, suddenly there was a crash and I hope everyone was OK. I kept on attacking and followed one move, and I was in the breakaway," Wellens recalled the start of the decisive move at just over 100km out, and three ascents to cross.
"On the climb, it exploded again, and then on the last climb of the day, I felt really good. I saw the others also felt good, but I knew I had to go solo. At the top of the climb, I knew I had my moment and had the legs to keep it until the end."
Wellens' teammate and yellow-jersey wearer, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG), finished the stage safely in the main peloton at 6:07 later. The Slovenian continues to lead the GC standings with 4:13 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 7:53 ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) as the race heads into the second rest day at the Tour de France.
Many have speculated that there will be limited chances for UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders to secure stage wins now, given the team's focus on the overall title with Pogačar.
Wellens agreed with that statement but also said, "I had the opportunity, I took it, and I had the legs to finish it. But, of course, I take my victory directly for yellow with Tadej in Paris."
How it Unfolded
The Tour de France moved away from the Pyrenees on stage 15 for a transition day as the peloton travelled east from Muret to Carcassonne on a day that included one intermediate sprint and three ascents: Côte de Saint-Ferréol (cat. 3) at 72.8km, Côte de Sorèze (cat. 3) at 86.6km and Pas du Sant (cat. 2) at 116.6km before descent and fast run-in to the finish line at Carcassonne.
With around 2,400m of climbing, it suited a versatile rider, and after three days of climbing that finished at Hautacam, Peyragudes and Luchon-Superbagnères, many of the GC contenders and climbers were content for a day of reprieve, making it a prime opportunity for a large breakaway to go clear.
A big fight for the breakaway
Pogačar riding through the tree-lined roads of the early kilometres of stage 15 (Image credit: Getty Images)
It was a hectic start to the race with numerous attacks and several crashes in the opening kilometres. Alaphilippe was part of a crash, and while he was back on his bike quickly, he appeared to have hurt his shoulder.
It was a fast day of racing with the peloton reaching average speeds of 48kph, but that didn't stop a breakaway from emerging on the flatter sections at just over the 100km mark.
The riders in the move appeared content to roll through: Wellens and Campenaerts, along with Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-QuickStep), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious), Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ), Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL), Alexey Lutsenko and Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), Arnaud de Lie and Jarrad Drizners (Lotto).
Van der Poel started the day with 190 points in the green-jersey classification, just 61 points behind leader Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek). Van der Poel took the full points offered at the only intermediate sprint of the day in Saint-Félix-Lauragais, moving himself closer to the top of the standings.
Meanwhile, Milan appeared to struggle to stay with the main field behind the breakaway, yo-yoing off the back of the peloton early in the race, which caused many to question whether he would be able to make the roughly 28-minute time cut. He ended up finishing in the gruppetto 22 minutes back and is still safely in the green jersey.
A hilly second half
Michael Storer (Tudor), Quinn Simmons, Thibau Nys and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Warren Barguil and Oscar Onley (Picnic Post NL) in the day's main breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
As the main peloton raced toward the first two category 3 climbs of the day - Côte de Saint-Ferréol and Côte de Sorèze - the gap was only 30 seconds and a chase group bridged across to the breakaway that included Michael Storer (Tudor), Quinn Simmons, Thibau Nys and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Warren Barguil and Oscar Onley (Picnic Post NL), 4th overall in the GC standings at the start of the day, along with Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious), Michael Valgren (EF Education EasyPost), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Martin Guillaume and Valentine (Groupama FDJ), and Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
However, the large group split apart on the upper slopes of the Côte de Sorèze with eight riders emerging: Wellens, Campenaerts, Powless, Mohorič, Rodriguez, Simmons, Lutsenko and Storer pushing 40 seconds ahead of the 23-riders chasing group, with the yellow-jersey group of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) more than four minutes behind.
The breakaway expanded to nine as Leknessund bridged across just before they reached the lower slopes of the final climb of the day, category 2 Pas du Sant.
The steeper slopes of the ascent continued well past the actual KOM line, and onto the Col du Fontbruno, which proved to be a demanding ask for some of the breakaway riders, while other riders from the chase group behind saw it as an opportunity to bridge across.
Simmons, Storer, Wellens and Campenaerts pulled away from the group, leaving Nys, Madouas, Jegat and Leknessund chasing at 40 seconds back. Further back, Rodriguez, Vlasov, Lutsenko, Powless, and Barguil were more than a minute behind, while Mohorič had dropped entirely back to the main group.
Tim Wellens on his solo attack (Image credit: Getty Images)
Storer took advantage of the additional 8km of climbing and attacked, but Simmons, Wellens and Campenaerts clawed their way back, and the quartet settled into a steady pace roughly 20 seconds ahead of Rogriguez, Vlasov, Barguil and Lutsenko.
Wellens launched his winning attack with 43km to go, over the top of the climb and pushed his lead out over the rolling terrain before the final descent.
With no significant chase, the Belgian increased his lead to nearly two minutes as he hit the flatter sections through Carcassonne.
The two chase groups behind Wellens reconnected with Storer, Simmons, Campenaerts, Rodriguez, Vlasov, Barguil, and Lutsenko, but were unable to close the gap on Wellens. Eventually, the larger chase group behind them caught up, which included Alaphilippe.
Tim Wellens on the podium after stage 15 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Wellens had enough time in hand to enjoy his victory, celebrating along the final straight away, giving high-fives to cheering fans along the side of the road before crossing the line with the prestigious win.
Behind, his compatriot Campenaerts managed to sneak away to claim second place while Alaphilippe won the larger chase-group sprint for third.
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
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