Tadej Pogacar does it again

Tour de France 2020 | Stage 15 | Lyon > Grand Colombier

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) claimed his second mountain stage victory in another 1-2 for Slovenia atop the Grand Colombier. Defending champion Egan Bernal (Ineos) said goodbye to his ambitions of a double up meanwhile Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) extended his overall lead to all his rivals except for his compatriot who is definitely the best young rider of this Tour de France.

MATTEO TRENTIN IN THE BREAKAWAY GROUP
157 riders took the start of stage 15 in Lyon. After an extremely fast start and a crash caused by Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick Step) that forced Colombian national champion Sergio Higuita (EF) to abandon, eight riders managed to go clear at km 28: 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). Trentin won the intermediate sprint at Le Bouchage, km 58, while Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) extended his lead by two points over Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), after 53.5km had been covered in the first hour of racing. The advantage of the eight leaders was four minutes with 100km to go.

HERRADA FIRST AT THE TOP, GOGL FAST IN THE DESCENT
5km before the top of Montée de la Selle de Fromentel (cat. 1, km 111), Trentin finished his hard work at the service of Geschke who was first to attack from the front group. Rolland, Herrada and Gogl successively came across to him while the maximum deficit of the peloton was 4’35’’. Herrada crested the Montée de la Selle de Fromentel in first position before Rolland. Gogl rode away by himself in the downhill. Rolland came across to the Austrian 2km before the top of col de la Biche. The Frenchman crested in first position. After Herrada reunited the leading trio, Gogl rode away solo in the downhill again meanwhile the peloton led by Jumbo-Visma had reduced their deficit to 2’.

BERNAL IN SERIOUS TROUBLE
Gogl and Rolland started climbing to Grand Colombier together but the NTT rider couldn’t hold the pace of his rival with 15km to go. Rolland continued until he got brought back by the pack strongly led by Wout van Aert and the rest of the Jumbo-Visma team 13km before the end. At the same time, Egan Bernal (Ineos) got dropped for good, so was his compatriot Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic). Once Van Aert finished his demolition work with 10km to go, the front group comprised 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). The latter attacked with 7km to go. Jumbo-Visma caught him 1.5km further. Dumoulin continued pulling to avoid other attacks. Roglic himself was the one to speed up in the last few hundred meters. Porte tried to go for the stage victory but it was another 1-2 for Slovenia with Pogacar taking his second Tour de France stage win in the mountains.

#TDF2020 - Stage 15 - Highlights

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