Wellens wins Tour de France 15th stage, teammate Pogačar maintains grip on yellow jersey

CARCASSONNE, France (AP) — Tim Wellens raced clear on the descent toward Carcassonne to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday while three-time champion Tadej Pogačar tightened his hold on the yellow jersey.

“I had the opportunity, I took it, and I had legs to finish it, but of course I trade my victory directly for a yellow with Tadej in Paris,” said Wellens, a teammate of Pogačar at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, after his first Tour stage victory.

With it, the Belgian rider became the 113th rider to take stage wins in all three Grand Tours. Wellens finished 1 minute, 28 seconds ahead of Victor Campenaerts and 1:36 ahead of Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert, and Axel Laurance.

“I knew that I had to enjoy the moment,” Wellens said. “I kept riding ’till the finish line because I wanted a big gap to fully enjoy it and maybe put my bike in the air after the finish. But I was so happy to win that I forgot to do it.”

Pogačar and his closest general classification rivals, Jonas Vingegard and Florian Lipowitz, finished in a large group 6:07 behind Wellens. It meant the Slovenian rider maintained his overall lead of 4:13 over Vingegard and 7:53 over German rider Lipowitz.

Sunday’s 169-kilometer stage from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne got off to a chaotic start with a crash in the peloton affecting Alaphilippe, Lipowitz and many others. It appeared to be caused by a cobbled traffic island that caught one or more riders by surprise.

Alaphilippe looked to have hurt his left shoulder, but all could continue racing.

Pogačar, who’d raced ahead, was told over the radio to try and calm the bunch so Vingegaard and Lipowitz could resume contact.

By the time the peloton got back together, it was about 40 seconds behind a 15-rider breakaway including Wellens.

Wellens was in a four-man leading group with Campenaerts, Michael Storer, and Quinn Simmons as they climbed the 2.9 kilometer, 10.2% incline Pas du Sant.

Carlos Rodriguez, Warren Barguil, Aleks Vlasov and Alexey Lutsenko were chasing, and Wellens waited for the trailing group to catch up before he attacked with 43.5 kilometers to go, knowing his rivals would find it hard to react with the downhill to come.

“On the last climb of the day I felt really good,” Wellens said. “I saw the others also felt really good, but I knew I had to go solo and at the top of the climb I found my moment.”

Third-placed Alaphilippe celebrated after beating Van Aert and Laurance in a sprint to the line, thinking he’d won the stage, only to be told that two riders had finished ahead of him.

Raphaël Meyer, team manager of Alaphilippe’s Tudor Pro Cycling Team, explained that the rider’s radio was damaged in the early crash and so they were unable to communicate with him during the stage.

The race finishes next weekend in Paris. Monday offers riders the second rest day of the Tour.

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