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Vingegaard and Pogačar locked together after Week Two of the Tour, 10 seconds the difference

In his 21st Grand Tour, Wout Poels finally wins a stage

July 16, 2023
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In his 21st Grand Tour, Dutch rider Wout Poels took his first triumph on Sunday’s stage of the Tour de France, Bahrain-Victorious’s second. Five teams now have multiple wins after 15 stages. There was little to separate yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar on Sunday’s summit finish, and the 10-second gap established on Saturday is retained going into the final rest day. The top Canadian was breakaway rider Hugo Houle in 13th.

The Course

Sunday’s fare was five categorized climbs over 179 km from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to the summit finish at Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc. The final climb was a two-part affair. First came the wall of Cat. 2 Côte des Amerands, 2.7 km at 10.1 percent, and then Mont-Blanc, 7.7 km of 7 percent.

After a few failed attempts and a large crash in the first hour, an immense breakaway featuring every team except Lotto-Dstny formed. By the foot of the first climb, Cat. 1 Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, Julian Alaphilippe and Alexey Lutsenko were ahead of a 36-strong chase containing Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout Poels, Canadians Hugo Houle and Michael Woods, 12th place Guillaume Martin, 14th place Thibaut Pinot, 15th place Mikel Landa and the two top non-Vingegaard-Pogačar guys in the KOM competition, Neilson Powless and Giulio Ciccone. The peloton was 7:30 back.

Woods in a meditative moment before the start in Les Gets. Photo: Sirotti

Powless and Ciccone flashed out from the chase group to vie for the polka dot points. Ciccone snagged two more points than Powless, but EF Education-Easypost’s American was back in the polka dots for real, not just keeping the jersey warm for Vingegaard. Ciccone was 10 points back of Powless.

Lutsenko and Alaphilippe returned to the flock in the valley between Forclax de Montmin and Cat. 1 Col de la Croix Fry. With the gap at 8:20, it looked good for the breakaway. Bora-Hansgrohe’s Austrian Marco Haller dashed clear of his breakmates. At the beginning of Croix Fry, Rui Costa lit out after him and they linked up with 61.5 km to ride before the Portuguese world champion of 2013 went solo.

The pace of Croix Fry unfortunately detached Woods, who was in Group 4. Houle, Pinot, Landa, Martin and Ciccone were in the closest chase and Powless was back in Group 3. Ciccone and company caught Costa and the Italian Lidl-Trek rider nabbed 10 KOM points to drew level with Neilson and take over the dots.

2019 Giro mountains classification winner Ciccone is gunning for the polka dots at the Tour. Photo: Sirotti

Cat. 3 Col des Aravis arrived hard on the heels of Croix Fry. There, Pogačar’s teammate Marc Soler stole away on the other fugitives. The closest pursuit group was down to 16, Houle still accounted for. Van Aert spearheaded a bridging move of three that made a quartet out front. Ciccone got bupkus.

One rider crashed out of the quartet. Soler, Van Aert and Poels arrived at the foot of Côte des Amerands 1:20 ahead of Houle-Pinot-Landa-Martin.

Côte des Amerands/Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc

Poels pulled away and tipped over the tough Cat. 2 climb 32 seconds before Van Aert and Soler. Jumbo-Visma led Vingegaard onto the Amerands before UAE-Emirates took over. Houle wasn’t with Landa and Pinot anymore. Jai Hindley, Pello Bilbao and Simon Yates were dropped from the favourites group, Carlos Rodriguez tightening his grip on the last podium spot.

The yellow jersey group was mostly Jumbo-Visma and UAE, along with Rodriguez and David Gaudu. Then it was only Adam Yates, Pogačar and Vingegaard.

Up the road, Poels was taking his greatest victory.

Unexpectedly, Yates left the top tow and reached Soler. Rodriguez found the Big Two with 2 km to go and led. Pogačar attacked with 950 metres to go. Vingegaard matched him and the two drifted over the finish line together.

Adam Yates is now Rodriguez’s closest rival for the podium. Martin rose into the top-10 at the expense of Felix Gall. Poels’ teammate Bilbao snatched seventh place from Simon Yates.

Monday is the second and last rest day.

2023 Tour de France Stage 15
1) Wout Poels (The Netherlands/Bahrain-Victorious) 4:40:45
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) +2:08
3) Mathieu Burgaudeau (France/TotalEnergies) +3:00
13) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +5:31

2023 Tour de France GC
1) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) 62:34:17
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:10
3) Carlos Rodriguez (Spain/Ineos) +5:21
4) Adam Yates (Great Britain/UAE-Emirates) +5:40
5) Jai Hindley (Australia/Bora-Hansgrohe) +6:38