PARIS — Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel beat race leader Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish to take the 15th stage of the Tour de France, as former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out with a broken collarbone.
Evenepoel edged out the reigning champion at the end of the tough 11km-long climb to the finish. Pogacar’s UAE Emirates-XRG teammate Isaac Del Toro was third, six seconds back.
“It’s amazing. I’m literally trembling from emotion,” Evenepoel said at the finish of the 183.9km stage from Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison after his first Tour road-stage victory following two time-trial successes.
“It’s been a hell of a day. A pretty hard start, I was actually feeling really bad in the beginning, but I really got better and better during the day,” he added according to AFP.
“You have to understand how I’m racing with the best rider ever (Pogacar), and he has been doing a hell of a climb to try to win the stage with Isaac (Del Toro).”
The main drama came when two-time former winner Vingegaard crashed out, breaking his collarbone, for which he will require surgery.
The 29-year-old Dane went down hard on a bend as his Visma-Lease a Bike team were setting a fierce pace to chase down the day’s breakaway.
