The first Alpine test of the Tour confirmed how unpredictable cycling can be. The Visma Lease a Bike team wanted to fight for a stage win in stage 15; their riders set a hard pace in pursuit of the breakaway riders, but then their leader Jonas Vingegaard crashed badly 22 kilometers from the finish. Unlike Tadej’s teammates from UAE Team Emirates – XRG, Isaac del Toro and Felix Grossschartner, who also crashed, he could no longer continue the race. He was taken to an ambulance, and later his team reported that he had broken his collarbone.
»It’s very sad that Jonas is no longer in the race. Since 2021 we have always fought for the win. At the beginning maybe we didn’t have the best relationship, but then we became good rivals; we respected each other as competitors, and in a way we became friends. The Tour won’t be the same without him,« Tadej reacted to the withdrawal of his great rival.
Both of them also had a doping control on the night from Saturday to Sunday. The controllers visited Vingegaard at 2 a.m., and Tadej at 5 a.m. »We had a doping control; Jonas had it at two in the morning. One night they ruin your sleep, you’re a little less focused on the descent and the Tour is ruined. I don’t blame the control, but maybe it is somewhat connected. It’s very sad that he left,« Tadej said about the Dane’s bad luck.
On the final climb to Plateau de Solaison (11.3 km, 9.2%), the battle for the stage win ignited. At first, riders from the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe team were at the front, but eight kilometers from the summit Tadej took over the pace-setting. Only Isaac del Toro and Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) could follow him. Tadej rode with them all the way to the finish. He tried to set up a winning move for del Toro, but Evenepoel was stronger.
The Belgian claimed his third stage win at the Tour and, after Vingegaard’s withdrawal, moved up to 2nd place in the general classification. He trails Tadej by five minutes. Del Toro also moved up, climbing from 7th to 3rd, and his gap to Tadej is 5:58. The Mexican also put on the white jersey as the best young rider. In that classification, he has a 25-second advantage over Paul Seixas (Decathlon).
»Over the first two hours the break didn’t form; for us it was a perfect day. Visma wanted a stage win; that was also perfect for us, and up the road was Adam Yates, who could also fight for the win. Quinn Simmons was supersonic in the break, but we tried with Isaac. This is his climb, but he felt some pain after the crash and lost a bit of confidence for the finale. Still, it was a good day for him—he put on the white jersey and moved up in the overall standings,« Tadej assessed the gains of another hard day at the Tour.
»Chapeau to Remco. Plateau de Solaison is a half-hour climb; we rode with the best numbers. Remco sometimes only needs moral encouragement and he flies. He showed that he’s a rocket; he’ll be a pain in the ass next week as well,« Tadej added. Ahead of him is the second rest day on the Tour, and then the final week of the race, which will begin with Stage 16, a 26.1-kilometer individual time trial along Lake Geneva.