Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) crushed rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) with a devastating attack to win stage 15 of the Tour de France on the mountain top finish of the Plateau de Beille.
Vingegaard attacked with ten kilometres to go after his team had pulled on the front all day but was unable to shake Pogačar. The Slovenian surged past the reigning champion with 5.4km to go on the final climb, eventually beating him by 1:08 to extend his lead in the Malliot Jaune on Bastille Day to 3:09.
Having dominated in similar fashion a day earlier, Pogačar is now in a commanding position to win the race with six stages to go and complete an historic Giro-Tour double.
Remco Evenepoel, wearing the white jersey of the best young rider, finished third 2:51 behind and remains in that position in the General Classification.
Pogačar was understandably thrilled after tightening his grip on the Yellow Jersey over this weekend in the Pyrenees.
"I would never imagine this kind of outcome after [the] second week in the beginning," Pogačar said after the stage. "I'm super happy with my shape. Also today was super hot and yeah, it was a really hard day. Usually I always struggle with the heat and today the team did a super good job with cooling me down and everything. It was an incredible day."
Visma-Lease a Bike tried to control the stage on a parcours that they believed suited their leader Vingegaard better than Pogačar. The Slovenian was confident throughout, but admitted to being "on the limit" when Vingegaard attacked.
"I was never worried. I just keep in mind keeping myself cool and hydrating and eating enough...I was on the limit a little bit when Jonas tried to drop me but then I could see that he's also starting to suffer a bit."
"When he tried to drop me the last time I saw that he didn't have the legs to go to the top so I tried my own. It was super super tough in the final and it paid off."
It's always best to be cautious when making predictions in cycling, but Pogačar looks every bit like he will now hold onto the lead of this Tour de France when the race finishes in Nice. The race leader is confident, but plans to keep up the focus in the final stages.
"It's really looking good. I was saying this already when it was 1 minute 14 and now it's really comfortable lead and we just need to keep focused the last six days and let's keep this mentality like we have now and let's go to the next week."
"I'm looking forward for the rest day and I hope we will have a good ride with the boys. Maybe stopping for one good coffee or something and then we can reset a little bit - not too much - and we go full gas for the final week then."
How it happened
We're getting used to highly-contested battles for the break at this Tour de France and stage 15 was no different. The start of the stage was dreaded by the big men in the bunch. Bang - they started straight into the Col de Peyresourde, 7km at 8%.
Numerous escape attempts were made in the opening minutes as the sprinters went straight out the back door, but it was on the descent towards the intermediate sprint point in Marignac that a group of 21 finally managed to make it clear. That group included the likes of Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) - the extending his lead in the green jersey.
On the second of five classified climbs, the pace in the breakaway increased with their gap at just 90 seconds, weeding out the weaker climbers. With the break still bridgeable from the Visma-Lease a Bike-led peloton, the likes of Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and Ben Healy (EF Education-Easypost) moved across. With 150km to go, nearly at the top of the steep Col de Menté, 2019 Yellow Jersey winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was dropped from the peloton.
15 riders remained in the group approaching the third climb, the Col de Portet d'Aspet, their lead hanging around two minutes. Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the man doing the lion's share of the work in support of Hindley.
Following the third climb of the day was 70km of flat road. Visma-Lease a Bike let the gap to the break drift out to four minutes on the valley road.
Climbing the Col d'Agnes, the penultimate climb of the day, Hindley, Mas and Laurens de Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) moved away from the rest of the breakaway. Around 20 riders remained in the yellow jersey group at this stage, led by Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike). Olympic champion Richard Carapaz made his way back to the lead before the top of the Col d'Agnes, Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno X Mobility) joined shortly after to make a front group of five for the final climb of the Plateau de Beille.
The quintet had a lead of 2:40 at the start of the final 15.7km Pyrenean peak. The hardest climb of the day was saved for last and it would have a significant impact on the fight for yellow.
Plateau de Beille is an unrelenting slog. It's steep right from the bottom and only eases in the last kilometre. Mas drove the breakaway on early in the climb, but Matteo Jorgensen (Visma-Lease a Bike) was on his best form chasing behind, having returned to the group just before the climb after a bike swap. 45 seconds melted away from the gap almost instantly under the American's pace. Riders high on GC such as Gee, Gall, Ciccone and Almeida fell away early on the climb.
At 14km to go, with the prospects of the break looking bleaker by the pedal stroke, Carapaz and Mas attacked the leading group. The group quickly came back together but their co-operation seemed to fall apart with a lead of 90 seconds.
With 10 to go, Jorgensen was done. Vingegaard attacked and only the yellow jersey could follow. The pair closed down the breakaway in a matter of a few hundred metres, with Evenepoel trying to claw them back around ten seconds down.
The two best General Classification riders of their generation were locked together for much of the climb, Vingegaard setting an infernal pace as he looked to put Pogačar under pressure. Evenepoel faded and would go on to lose almost three minutes.
With 5.4km left Vingegaard turned to look at Pogačar, the Slovenian saw enough fragility in the reigning champion to put in an acceleration, instantly distancing him.
Vingegaard fought on, holding the gap at ten seconds. He wrestled with the bike as he looked to put every watt through the pedals that he could manage. Meanwhile Pogačar was controlled as the gap grew to 15 seconds, 25 seconds and more.
The great Dane faded in the final kilometres while Pogačar did not. His deficit grew, eventually losing 1:08 to the Yellow Jersey.
With six stages to go, Pogačar has a commanding lead. That historic Giro-Tour double now looks closer than ever.
Results
Tour de France 2024 stage 15: Loudenvielle > Plateau de Beille 198 km
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 05:13:55
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:08
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +2:51
4. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +3:54
5. Joao Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +4:43
6. Adam Yates (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates, +4:56
7. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious, 5:08
8. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, same time
9. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +5:41
10. Felix Gall (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +5:57
General Classification after stage 15
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 61:56:24
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +3:09
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +5:19
4. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +10:54
5. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal-Quick Step, +11:21
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +11:27
7. Adam Yates (Gbr) UAE Team Emirates, +13:38
8. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +15:48
9. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech, +16:12
10. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious, +16:32
