2020 Tour de France Stage 15 Results & Recap
Stage 15 of the 2020 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Pogacar unstoppable on Grand Colombier
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won his second victory at the Tour de France after grueling day in the mountains. The 21-year-old once again beat countryman and GC leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) on the feared Grand Colombier mountain.
"At the beginning, we put Marco Marcato in the break as a strategic move," he said. "But then Jumbo-Visma just set the pace all day [and the break was doomed]. Pogacar said. "It made for a really difficult stage. In the final kilometres I was ready to sprint. I'm so happy I won again. Jumbo-Visma was prepared to smash everything today. From my point of view, it didn't make sense to attack. I guess Egan Bernal is no longer a rival. As I said, Jumbo-Visma set a really hard pace today and some riders paid for it. At the moment, Roglic seems unstoppable. But today Bernal cracked and maybe one day myself or Primoz will crack too. There are still a lot of opportunities ahead."
Roglic and his superior Jumbo-Visma team took care of business on the final climb, quickly dispatching his Colombian rivals, Nairo Quintana and Egan Bernal. However, Roglic lost four seconds to Pogacar, who now second on GC.
"We had a plan to let the breakaway go," Roglic said. "It's not up to us to do the race, but we saw that we could control it. The guys did it really well. Unfortunately, I was a bit too short at the end. I didn't make any gift to Tadej [Pogacar]. We are good friends but we both want to win. He was just stronger and I was a bit disappointed to lose the stage. Chapeau to him. I don't think the suspense on GC is over. I would like it was. We are in a really good position, but it's far from over yet."
At the start in Lyon, eight riders went clear after almost 30 km of attacks. Kévin Ledanois (Arkéa-Samsic), Simon Geschke and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team), Jesús Herrada (Cofidis), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Niccolo Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie), Michael Gogl (NTT Pro Cycling) and Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept).
With 100km to go, the breakaway was four minutes ahead of the Jumbo-Visma led peloton.
Herrada was the first over the Montée de la Selle de Fromentel ahead of Rolland, and Gogl, who escaped solo on the downhill. Meanwhile, the peloton was closing in fast on the trio, determined to catch them on the HC ascent.
It was all together after the final climb started and Jumbo Visma unleased their assault. GC riders started cracking, including Bernal and Quintana, two of the most serious contenders for the yellow jersey.
Only Roglic, George Bennett, Tom Dumoulin, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Mikel Landa, Pello Bilbao, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-McLaren), Rigoberto Urán (EF Education First), Enric Mas, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Miguel Ángel López, Harold Tejada (Astana Pro Team) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) were left with 7km to go.
Yates tried his hand at an attack halfway up the climb, but the move was quickly neutralised after 1.5km, when Dumoulin took over the pace setting. From there, it was a drag race amongst the GC hopeful. Porte tried to attack with metres left in the stage, but Pogacar burst into action, flying by Porte and Roglic, and onto victory. \n
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