Stage 15

The road

At the start

Three times across the Slovenian border

The Zoncolan rearranged everything behind Bernal: Simon Yates is second at 1:33, Caruso third, Vlasov out to fourth at 1:57, Evenepoel nearly four minutes down. Last year's runner-up Jai Hindley never started it. Today is a lull between mountain ranges — sixty flat kilometres to the Collio, then two laps of a circuit crossing into Slovenia and up to Gornje Cerovo.

How it was won

1. 148 km to go

   Second time over the border climb

   De Bondt skips clear again for the mountain points ahead of Mollema and Riesebeek. The fifteen-man break has almost ten minutes and the bunch, eyeing the Dolomites, has entirely given up on the stage.

2. 231 km to go

   The alliance breaks

   With 31km left Riesebeek attacks and Campenaerts marks him instantly. On the flat approach to the last climb Campenaerts goes again, and only Riesebeek and Torres can respond.

3. 316 km to go

   Third time up, in the rain

   Torres empties himself to hold the wheels over the steepest part and loses contact at the top. The two leaders crest with the rain coming down hard and sixteen fast kilometres to the line.

4. 4At the line

   Gorizia

   Campenaerts takes risks on the descent, survives three attacks from Riesebeek on the final rise, then simply powers past him in the sprint — the first World Tour win of the hour-record holder's career.

The result