Generous Pogi
He didn’t. He finished second, 1:08 behind Thymen Arensman, who burst out of a small breakaway group on the category 1 climb to the Col du Peyresourde (7.1km @ 8.1%) with 34.1km left to ride on the 182.6km course from Pau to Luchon-Superbagnères and soloed courageously to the finish line. It marked the first Tour victory for his INEOS Grenadiers team since July 15, 2023, when Carlos Rodríguez also won that Tour’s stage 14.
“I heard the gap with the GC group, and I thought with Tadej and Jonas [Vingegaard], three-and-a-half minutes probably isn’t enough,” Arensman said afterwards. “I have to move. Maybe it’s suicide, maybe it’s not. I can’t believe I held them off, but I was really fading on this last climb, the second half. But I think with all the spectators, they gave me an extra few Watts, and I just could hold them off. It’s crazy.”
That climb was the second HC ascent of the stage, 12.4km @ 7.3% to the ski resort of Luchon-Superbagnères, and on some of the double-digit gradients Arensman looked as if he were about to stop or fall over. But he plugged on and maintained a healthy gap all the way to the line.
But, with no disrespect to Arensman, it must be said that Pogačar looked as if he could easily have caught and passed him on that final climb. That he didn’t was probably due to a media discussion that took place Friday when some commentators suggested that perhaps the Slovenian was too greedy and should give lesser riders a chance to win a stage. “I’m not here to make enemies, but this is the Tour de France,” he replied. “I’m paid to win races, not to give them away.” But I think he gave this one away.
About 4km before the finish line, Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) burst out of a small pursuing group, followed closely by Pogačar and the new Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe GC leader, Florian Lipowitz. The young German was eventually dropped, as the two GC rivals pursued their intense rivalry up the mountain. It seemed that Pogačar could have ridden away at any moment and sprint towards the finish, but he chose to sit on the Dane’s wheel.
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An unhappy ending for Evenepoel
In the end, Vingegaard could not match Pogačar’s sprint and finished 4 seconds behind the world champion. He trails him by 4:13 in the GC, with Lipowitz, who finished fifth in the stage, now in third, at 7:53. He now also owns the white jersey for best young rider in the race. That jersey and the third spot on the Tour podium belonged to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) before the start of the stage. But the world and Olympics ITT champion had struggled on Friday’s stage 13 time trial, finishing 2:39 behind the winner, Pogačar.
Most of that ITT was an 8.1km climb with an average gradient of 7.6% and ramps of up to 16% at the end on an airport at Peyragudes. Pogačar beat Vingegaard by 36 seconds, with a resurgent Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) finishing third, at 1:20. Evenepoel looked so unlike his usual time-trialing self that commentators suggested that he was ailing. Those observations were even more numerous on Saturday, as the 25-year-old Belgian crawled up the lower slopes of the first HC climb of the stage, the daunting Tourmalet (18.9km @ 7.4%). He eventually got off his bike and rode away in a team car.
Tom Steels, Soudal Quick-Step’s head sports director at the Tour, told TNT Sports that Evenepoel “didn’t feel great. He hoped for the best. He hoped it would turn at a moment, but it didn’t turn. He also didn’t have the legs to suffer. And then I also think it’s wise not to continue and [instead] recover well. He still has some goals this year and if he continues in the condition he had, maybe the rest of the season is lost.” Steels went on to say that September’s World Championships in Rwanda would likely be Evenepoel’s next goal.
But Evenepoel certainly seemed at his best in the stage 5 time trial, which he won majestically. So I believe the months of winter training he missed following his training crash in December and the high temperatures and blazing speeds at which this Tour has been run were responsible for his bad form when the climbing began.
More stage madness and another UAE winner
Sunday’s stage 15 was another one of those hilly, high-speed, lunatic stages with breakaways coming every time you blinked because it was probably the last stage which a cyclist who was neither a sprinter nor a climbing specialist could win. It seemed that perhaps half the peloton tried to race away at one time or another. In the final 20km or so, there must have been at least a half-dozen small groups strung out between the peloton and the finish line.
So it was fitting that the last breakaway rider, Belgian champion Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates–XRG), took home the prize. The 34-year-old took off from a small lead group with 43.6km left to race on the 169.3km course from Muret to Carcassonne. While some of the riders in the group – Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Victor Campenaerts (Visma–Lease a Bike), Warren Barguil (Picnic PostNL) and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro) – made an effort to catch him, Wellens slowly pulled away and when he crossed the finish line he had a gap of 1:28 over fellow Belgian Campenaerts, with French veteran Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro) outsprinting Visma’s Wout van Aert for third, at 1:36.
As an example of the chaos that reigned in this stage, Alaphilippe was part of a crash early in the stage and dislocated his shoulder. Instead of waiting for medical assistance, he healed himself. “I immediately felt that it was going to be complicated for a few seconds, because I’ve already done both shoulders, so I know the pain,” he told French TV. “But I remembered what they did at the hospital, and I managed to pop it back in. I just know that it made a big ‘click’ and that it was right again. . . . For 30 seconds after the fall, I thought it was over for me.”
He got on his bike and eventually found himself near the front of a pursuing group late in the stage and sprinting for third place. But he had another problem. “Unfortunately, my radio was no longer working after the crash, so I tried to do the best sprint possible, thinking about the stage victory,” he explained. He unleashed a powerful sprint, actually nipping van Aert at the line and celebrating as he crossed the line. “I raised my arms like an idiot, but there were guys in front [of me],” he explained.” So there you go, it could have ended better, but I could also have gone home [because of the crash]. So it’s OK.”
The victory was the first Tour stage win for Wellens and gave him a stage victory in all three Grand Tours. “I knew I’d be on an elite list with winners of stages in all the Grand Tours,” he said afterwards. “I had time to enjoy it. I actually wanted to raise my bike at the finish, but I was so happy I forgot.” He added: “I saw an opportunity, I seized it, and I had the legs to finish it off. But I would trade this victory in an instant for the yellow jersey with Tadej in Paris.”
And, barring injury or illness, Pogačar now looks certain to be wearing that yellow jersey when the race ends Sunday in Paris.
Results of Stage 15, 2025 Tour de France
- Tim Wellens, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 3:34:09
- Victor Campenaerts, Visma–Lease a Bike +1:28
- Julian Alaphilippe, Tudor Pro +1:36
- Wout Van Aert, Visma–Lease a Bike “
- Axel Laurance, INEOS Grenadiers “
- Aleksandr Vlasov, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe “
- Paul Penhoët, Groupama-FDJ “
- Jordan Jegat, TotalEngeries “
- Michael Valgren, EF Education–EasyPost “
- Valentin Madouas, Groupama-FDJ “
2025 Tour de France General Classification After Stage 15
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 54:20:44
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +4:13
- Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +7:53
- Oscar Onley, Picnic PostNL +9:18
- Kévin Vauquelin, Arkéa–B&B Hotels +10:21
- Primož Roglič, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +10:34
- Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +12:00
- Tobias Halland Johannessen, Uno-X Mobility +12:33
- Carlos Rodríguez, INEOS Grenadiers +18:26
- Ben Healy, EF Education–EasyPost +18:41
