Tim Wellens storms to Stage 15 win in Tour de France
Tour de France
into Carcassonne with his UAE Team Emirates team-mate
Tadej Pogacar
retaining the yellow jersey.
Wellens (34) completed his set of Grand Tour stage victories, attacking from a breakaway with 44 kilometres of the 169km stage from Muret and quickly opening a sizeable gap before the long downhill run into the medieval city where his margin of victory over Victor Campenaerts was 88 seconds.
In the confusion of another frantic day of racing, Julian Alaphilippe celebrated as though he had won the stage when he edged a three-way sprint for third, having apparently been without a working radio after hurting his shoulder in an earlier crash.
Instead, it was a fifth stage victory of this Tour for UAE, with Pogacar having taken the other four on his way to building an advantage of four minutes 13 seconds over Jonas Vingegaard going into Monday's rest day.
READ MORE
Ireland's
Ben Healy
rolled in with the peloton alongside Pogacar and Vingegaard, six minutes seven seconds behind Wellens.
The 24-year-old, racing for ED Education-EasyPost, is now 10th in the general classification, 15 seconds back on Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) with six stages left in this year's Tour.
Ireland's Ben Healy (centre) with his EF Education-EasyPost ahead of Sunday 169.3km Stage 15 between Muret and Carcassonne. Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images
'It was a very special victory,' said Wellens after Sunday's stage win. 'Everybody knows the Tour de France, everybody wants to ride the Tour de France but not many get to win at the Tour de France so it's very beautiful.
'I knew it was going to be very beautiful to complete my trilogy of the Giro, Tour and Vuelta and I knew I had to enjoy the moment. I kept riding to the finish line because I wanted a big gap and to maybe put my bike in the air on the finish, but I was so happy I forgot to do it.'
In keeping with so much of this Tour to date, it was another chaotic stage as a hilly route across southern France offered little let-up after three days in the Pyrenees.
A furious fight to get into the breakaway was interrupted by an early crash that split the peloton, with Vingegaard and Florian Lupowitz, who is third in the GC, among those held up.
Pogacar tried to slow the pace to allow them to close a one-minute gap, but others were still attacking to get down the road and it took a full 20 kilometres for the GC leaders to come back together.
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