DUTCHMAN Wout Poels of the Bahrain Victorious team won the 15th stage of the Tour de France, a 179km trek from Les Gets, yesterday.
Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey heading into the second rest day.
On his 10th Tour de France, Poels soloed to his first-ever Grand Tour stage win atop Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc on stage 15 of the Tour de France. The 35-year-old added his dream to his Palmares, which includes a monument win at Liège Bastogne Liège in 2016.
The Dutchman joined the day’s breakaway with a group of over 30 riders, including teammate Mikel Landa and with around 50km to go, Poels followed Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) to latch on an earlier move made by Marc Soler (UAE) on Col des Aravis. As the three closed in on the penultimate climb, Côtes des Amerands, Poels launched his attack leaving Van Aert behind and soloing to victory securing Team Bahrain Victorious’ second stage win at this year’s Tour de France.
Poels, in disbelief, said: “I always dreamed to win a stage at the Tour. I won a Monument and now a stage in the Tour. When you are young, you dream of it, look at all the people watching on TV and at the side of the road. The Tour is the Tour.
“I’ve had great memories at this race; this is my 10th. I’ve always worked for people, so it’s incredible to have my chance and achieve this dream. Yesterday I tried, and we didn’t manage to get much time, but today I went all in again.
“In the beginning, I wasn’t happy the group was so big, but we kept going, and I just had to follow the right moves, and when I saw Van Aert following Soler on the downhill, I knew that was my ticket.
“I wanted to enjoy it in the last kilometre, but it was really steep, so I really kept going to the line. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for the team in the last month, and I still can’t believe it. It’s special to achieve this in honour of Gino (Mader).”
Vingegaard and Slovenian Tadej Pogacar shadowed each other yesterday before they face a highly-anticipated individual time trial which the Danish defending champion will start with a 10-second advantage after a rest day.
Pogacar, who looked to be struggling in the final ascent of yesterday’s 15th stage, attacked just inside the final kilometre on the Bettex climb (7km at 7.7 per cent) but could not drop the Jumbo-Visma rider.
Vingegaard tried to catch Pogacar off guard in the last steep bend but both rolled over the line together, six minutes and four seconds behind Poels.
On a 179km trek featuring three first-category climbs, Vingegaard and Pogacar put their teams to work but let a large breakaway go after a massive pile-up, signalling they would not go for the stage win and the bonus seconds that go with it, a day after another epic round in their fight for the title.
“I think (in) the time trial there will be a gap, also the next day with one of the hardest climbs in the world (to the Col de la Loze). Also stage 20 could make the difference,” said Pogacar.
“Of course, I would have liked to create a gap today. In such a situation with a rider like Jonas it’s good to take time when you can but being 10 seconds behind pushes me to be aggressive and that suits me.
“Today is a tie. It was a good day, although three of my team mates crashed,” said Vingegaard, whose team mates Sepp Kuss, Nathan van Hooydonck and Dylan van Baarle hit the deck with others after one of the Jumbo Visma riders was put off balance by a spectator.
Vingegaard’s team mate Van Aert thought it was his day to shine when he jumped away from the leading group near the top of the Col des Aravis, followed by Poels and Krists Neilands.
The trio quickly caught Marc Soler, who had gone solo earlier, only for Latvia’s Neilands to crash in the descent as he tried to grab a water bottle from a race motorbike on a left-hand bend.
Poels, Van Aert and Soler opened a 1:30 gap over the breakaway group and when Dutchman Van Aert was expected to be the strongest in the finale, Poels attacked at the foot of the Cote des Amerands (2.7km at 10.9pc).
He never looked back and crossed the line 2:08 ahead of Van Aert for his first victory in a grand tour with France’s Mathieu Burgaudeau taking third place, three minutes off the pace.
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