CARCASSONNE, France — Tim Wellens raced clear on the descent toward Carcassonne to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday while three-time champion Tadej Pogačar tightened his hold on the yellow jersey.
Wellens, a teammate of Pogačar at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, was in a four-man leading group with Michael Storer, Quinn Simmons and Victor Campeanaerts as they climbed the 1.8-mile, 10.2% incline Pas du Sant.
Carlos Rodriguez, Warren Barguil, Aleks Vlasov and Alexey Lutsenko were chasing, and Wellens waited for the trailing group to catch up before he attacked with 27 miles to go, knowing his rivals would find it hard to react with the downhill to come.
The Belgian rider finished 1 minute, 28 seconds ahead of Campeanaerts and 1:36 ahead of Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert and Axel Laurance.
Alaphilippe celebrated after beating Van Aert and Laurance to the line, thinking he had won the stage, only to be told that two riders had finished ahead of him.
Pogačar and his closest general classification rivals, Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, finished in a large group 6:07 behind Wellens.
Pogačar maintained his overall lead of 4:13 over Vingegaard and 7:53 over German rider Lipowitz.
Sunday’s 105-mile stage from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne got off to a chaotic start with a crash in the peloton affecting Alaphilippe, Lipowitz and many others. It appeared to be caused by a cobbled traffic island that caught one or more riders by surprise.
Alaphilippe looked to have hurt his left shoulder, but all could continue racing.
Pogačar, who had raced ahead, was told over the radio to try to calm the bunch so Vingegaard and Lipowitz could resume contact.
By the time the peloton got back together, it was about 40 seconds behind a 15-rider breakaway including Wellens.
The race finishes next weekend in Paris. Monday offers riders the second rest day of the Tour.
