Tour de France stage 15: Wellens lands popular win, Pogacar's sportsmanship, and why did Alaphilippe celebrate on finish line?

New York Times

5 days ago

Belgian national champion Tim Wellens soloed to victory on stage 15 of the Tour de France on Sunday. The UAE-Emirates domestique attacked from a breakaway with around 40km to go on another chaotic and entertaining afternoon of racing.
The early part of the day was shaped by a crash inside the first 20km, an incident that brought down several riders, including white jersey Florian Lipowitz and Jonas Vingegaard, third and second on GC respectively.
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That delay hastened a series of attacks, with more than half the peloton keen to get up the road. Tadej Pogacar attempted to use his influence to bring calm to the bunch and let his rivals catch up. Few listened to the yellow jersey.
Eventually a high-quality front group that included Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Arnaud De Lie, Tim Wellens, Neilson Powless and Victor Campenaerts established themselves, not that it prevented more tumult in the chasing groups.
Van der Poel took maximum points at the intermediate sprint but that juncture was just a catalyst for more chaos as the fourth category Côte de Saint-Ferréol approached. Attacks in the peloton, including a Matteo Jorgenson effort that was pointedly shut down by Pogacar, saw them almost catch the break, which split up anyway as they reached the next climb, the third-category Côte de Sorèze.
By the time the race reached the Pas du Sant with around 55km to go, a front four of Quinn Simmons, Tim Wellens, Victor Campanaerts and Michael Storer were trying to fend off a chasing quartet of Carlos Rodriguez, Aleksandr Vlasov, Warren Barguil and Alexey Lutsenko. On tight, rural lanes, this was highly-enjoyable fare. The two groups coalesced with 44km remaining but moments later Wellens attacked and got clear, shortly before a long downhill towards Carcassonne.
Wellens is almost the perfect rider to capitalize on that terrain. His big engine has been deployed in the service of his team leader Pogacar for the entirety of this Tour; this was his chance to ride for himself.
🤩🇧🇪 @Tim_Wellens had plenty of time to enjoy this beautiful victory and his last kilometer!
🤩🇧🇪 @Tim_Wellens a eu tout le temps de savourer cette belle victoire et son dernier kilomètre !#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/QHYGggmswt
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 20, 2025
He reached the outskirts of Carcassonne with an advantage of more than one minute and 40 seconds, plenty of time to celebrate on the run-in to the finish line as he sealed a popular victory. Compatriot Campanaerts came in alone for second, while Julian Alaphilippe raised his arms after pipping Van Aert to third place, erroneously thinking he had won the stage. It was that sort of day.
Jacob Whitehead, Jordan Halford and Duncan Alexander analyse another spectacular stage.
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Tim Wellens' Tour de France had been excellent but understated. The Belgian national champion is arguably Pogacar's most important domestique — both a rouleur who looks after the yellow jersey on the flat, and a strong enough climber to set a punishing initial pace at the base of climbs.
Having spent several days in the polka dot jersey earlier in the Tour, those days appeared to be his only public recognition — his primary role now is as one of the world's best support riders.
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But Wellens is a fine rider in his own right — the winner of two stages apiece in the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. In Carcassonne on Sunday, he completed the Grand Tour set.
Wellens' history with the Tour has not always been smooth sailing. He described his 2015 debut performance for Lotto as 'really bad', while he had to retire two years later with heat and pollen-related issues — having refused to treat them with a therapeutic use exemption (TUE).
Eight years later, this was to be his greatest day. He began it in the same breakaway group as compatriot Victor Campenaerts, who has been playing Wellens' role for Vingegaard at Visma-Lease a Bike. But UAE Team Emirates would win this proxy war.
💥 The Belgian champion's decisive attack!
💥 L'attaque décisive du champion de Belgique !#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/cIncKOiNAD
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 20, 2025
Having refused to work on the day's final ascent, Wellens attacked fiercely on a false flat 42km from home, a similar distance out to his winning move in the Belgian national championships last month. By striking on a small road, followed by a large highway, Wellens was able to quickly build his gap — once achieved, his pure power on a slight downhill meant the chasing group never got close to catching him.
'How is he looking?' Pogacar asked his team car. 'How does Tim look? Now, you should reply — he looks fabulous.'
Crossing the line with a one minute and 28 second advantage over Campenaerts, Wellens began to celebrate from 800m out — veering to the side of the road to high-five fans. Julian Alaphilippe edged out Wout van Aert for third, breaking up a potential Belgian 1-2-3.
'Before the stage, Nils (Pollit) and I were laughing a little bit that we would go in the break,' Wellens said post-stage. 'Suddenly, there was a big crash, so we tried to block and wait for the rest.
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'But people kept on attacking and then I followed one move and I was in the breakaway. Then on the climb it exploded again. On the last climb of the day, I felt really good, and I knew I had to go solo.
'I had the opportunity, I took it and I had the legs to finish it — but of course I would have traded my victory directly for a yellow with Tadej in Paris.
'I knew I had to enjoy the moment. 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, I forgot to do it.'
UAE place a stuffed toy on the front of their bus after every podium — the driver will soon be unable to look out the window.
Jacob Whitehead
Julian Alaphilippe's third place, pipping Wout van Aert to prevent a Belgian 1-2-3, was France's first podium of this Tour. But that alone, surely, was too little for the former world champion's ecstatic celebrations?
Alaphilippe's day started badly — one of the riders worst-affected by the early crash, and appearing to significantly damage his shoulder. It was remarkable that he rose from the ground to not only rejoin the main bunch, but to bridge across to the day's breakaway.
Coming into the final kilometre, he was over 90 seconds down on stage winner Wellens and second-placed Campenaerts, but after miscommunication from his team, sprinted as if riding for the win. It would have been his first Tour triumph since 2021.
'His radio was not working after the crash,' Tudor DS Raffael Meyer said post-stage.
Punching the air, baring his teeth, Alaphilippe looked close to tears when he realised he had not won. Awkwardly, French TV coverage is hosted by his wife, Marion Rousse, who was forced to try and explain her husband's embarrassing mistake.
🇫🇷 #TDF2025
Looking at the photo, you'd think Wout finished second. In reality, he came in fourth today. 😬
The rider who did take second was Victor, delivering another strong performance but just missing out on the win. ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/ThNHpDROyI
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) July 20, 2025
'I managed to put my shoulder back together,' Alaphilippe said after the stage. 'I remembered how they did it at the hospital. I fought, I had good legs. The radio was't working after the fall, so like an idiot, I sprinted to try and win. But morale is good.'
Alaphilippe has had plenty of memorable days on the Tour before — and well, this is one of them.
Jacob Whitehead
The beauty of Grand Tours is that there is always a race within a race. Or in the case of stage 15 today, dozens of races within the same stage.
From a cursory glance at the GC standings, it might be tempting to think this year's Tour is petering out, what with Tadej Pogacar continuing his dominance. But, in part due to the Slovenian, Grand Tour stages are increasingly seeing riders attack from the moment the flag drops more akin to one-day racing.
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None more so from Muret to Carcassonne, which featured three categorised climbs, a route hilly enough for breakaway specialists to mark it as a potential stage win and offering floundering teams a chance to salvage their tour, just as Thymen Arensman and INEOS Grenadiers did yesterday. Any hope that Jonathan Milan had of taking any points at the intermediate sprint were ruined by the mayhem that ensued from the moment the flag dropped.
There were multiple attacks from the off, with riders strewn across the route in multiple groups, even more so after an early crash disrupted the peloton.
The race was run at an astonishing average speed of 52.23kph for the first 70km, and it took a blue-chip combination of Victor Campenaerts (Visma–Lease a Bike), Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) to finally form the day's decisive breakaway.
The flamboyant Simmons has been one of the most combative riders in this year's race, but second place on stage six to Vire Normandie remains his best result. Steven de Jongh, his directeur sportif at Lidl-Trek, said before the stage. 'If big breakaways are going, Quinn is one of the riders who should be in them. He's really in the shape of his life, so if they are going, then I'm pretty confident that he will make it, especially if it's a big group.'
He was right, Simmons — once again — made that front group. But again he was outmanoeuvred by a cannier rival. A Tour de France of significant gaps is still being decided by marginal moments.
Jordan Halford
Five days ago, when Tadej Pogacar crashed with 6km of the sprint into Toulouse remaining, the remaining favourites had a choice.
They could put the hammer down and force Pogacar to lose time before the mountains — or sit up, ensuring he rejoined the bunch after a crash which was not predominantly his fault.
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Since, several riders in the peloton have claimed credit for the decision to slow down, but the fact remains — a decision was made by Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and then yellow jersey Ben Healy, et al, to allow Pogacar to rejoin. The next day, Pogacar destroyed the field on the ascent of the Hautacam to take yellow, and what appears to be an unassailable lead.
'Last time I do him a favour,' some members of the peloton might have thought.
But now, on stage 15, Pogacar had a chance to directly repay the bunch. Minutes into Sunday's stage, the likes of second-placed Vingegaard, third-placed Florian Lipowitz, and fourth-placed Oscar Onley were all caught in a large pile-up within the bunch.
Pogacar was virtually the only favourite to escape the chaos — and shortly afterwards, received the instruction from UAE Team Emirates to stop. 'Guys, Jonas crash, Lipowitz crash,' it said. 'If you can slow down the bunch.'
The yellow jersey did, eventually — and the peloton rode into Carcassonne otherwise uneventfully, content to let the breakaway enjoy their freedom.
Post-race, however, Pogacar expressed discontent with Visma's tactics during this period. Pogacar chased down an attack from Matteo Jorgenson, who was with the main bunch, but 22 minutes down on GC, and ordinarily would not have been of concern to the race leader.
'There was a crash, Jonas was involved, Lipowitz was involved, and we were trying to calm things down in the bunch and wait for the guys in the back. But what bothered me was that there were three Visma guys trying to go in the break again. They had Jonas at the back, chasing.
'Maybe it would have been fair if one went in, and the others stayed and waited, so I followed the third rider (Jorgenson) to try and get in the break.'
It's a flashpoint that may be worth keeping an eye on in the Tour's final week.
Jacob Whitehead
We're all guilty every October of scanning the following year's Tour de France route when it's released, and letting our eyes jump to the showpiece mountain stages. But perhaps, after the 2025 edition, everyone will be a bit more discerning. It's what Thierry Gouvenou deserves, after all.
📸 Postcard of the day : les four castles of Lastours
📸Carte postale du jour : les quatre châteaux de Lastours #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/XiQmApFhw1
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 20, 2025
The Tour's route designer spoke to The Athletic before this year's race and said that his aim was 'to find difficulties in every corner of France'. Sunday's stage 15 was a perfect example of him doing precisely that. What could have been a run-of-the-mill transition stage — effectively a functional route to get the race away from the Pyrenees and towards eastern France — was anything but.
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Two category three and one category two climb were placed perfectly to coax the sort of furious racing we saw all day, and the narrow wooded lanes of the Pas du Sant, so typical of the Aude region, were the perfect atmospheric prelude to Tim Wellens' winning attack, shortly before the race emerged onto a wide main road like wild beasts spilling out of a forest.
Add Sunday's stage, then, to the growing list of great parcours in the 2025 Tour de France. Gouvenou not only knows virtually every inch of France, he also knows how to turn his country into a canvas for great bike racing.
Duncan Alexander
Tadej: Enjoy 😉
Tim: Will do 🥇
Congratulations from the boss / Les félicitations du patron 😎#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/w5bsinuAPV
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 20, 2025
The second rest day of this year's Tour comes on Monday, and the riders will savour it because on Tuesday it's...
The race resumes with a set-piece finish up Mont Ventoux. It's a flat day for 130km until the riders reach the town of Bedoin and commence what's generally accepted to be the hardest of the three routes up the 'Giant of Provence'. Iban Mayo's record ascent of 55:51 has stood since the 2004 Criterium du Dauphine, but is surely in danger of being toppled here.
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