Stage 15

The road

At the start

A first Tour finish at Solaison

Pogačar took a fourth stage at Le Markstein and leads Vingegaard by 4:30 and Evenepoel by 5:04, with Paul Seixas up to fourth and into white. Anthon Charmig finished outside the time limit and is out. Today crosses the Jura into the Alps and ends somewhere the Tour has never been: the Plateau de Solaison, 11.9 kilometres averaging nine per cent, where Vingegaard won a Dauphiné stage four years ago.

How it was won

1. 1167 km to go

   An uphill sprint at Saint-Laurent

   For the second day running the intermediate sprint comes early, and this time it is uphill — which changes nothing for Philipsen, who takes maximum points ahead of Pedersen and keeps chipping away at the green jersey's margin.

2. 292 km to go

   Twenty-three finally get away

   It takes half the stage for the move to stick: 23 riders, among them Adam Yates, Campenaerts, Bernal, Vauquelin, Healy, Baudin and stage 13 winner Schmid, slip clear on an unclassified climb.

3. 348 km to go

   The Croisette wrecks the break

   Eleven per cent for 4.6km is no place to hide: the escape falls apart on the lower slopes, Quinn Simmons attacking and leading Pidcock, Yates, Rubio and Voisard over the top.

4. 438 km to go

   Schmid rejoins and attacks

   Costiou and Schmid claw back onto the leaders on the Côte du Mont, and Schmid immediately goes again on the descent — while behind, Visma's numbers start dragging the gap down.

5. 520 km to go

   Vingegaard crashes out

   With 20km to go the shape of the entire Tour changes in a heartbeat: Jonas Vingegaard, second overall and the only man who has looked capable of asking Pogačar a question, goes down and does not get up to race on. The chase hesitates, unsure what it is even chasing, until Red Bull take over.

6. 611 km to go

   Three men left on Solaison

   The Plateau de Solaison averages 9% for 11.3km, and Pogačar hits it at full tilt from the bottom. Within minutes only Del Toro and Evenepoel are still there; Simmons, 22 seconds up the road, is caught and passed with 6km left.

7. 7At the line

   Evenepoel outwits the yellow jersey

   Del Toro attacks with 900m to go and again at 400m and cannot shed Evenepoel; the Belgian sits, waits, and then comes past Pogačar for his first road stage win at the Tour — and second place overall.

The result