Remco Evenepoel wins Tour de France 15th stage
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel beat race leader Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish to win Sunday's 15th stage of the Tour de France, as former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out.
Evenepoel edged out the reigning champion on the tough 11km-long climb to the finish, with Mexican Isaac Del Toro finishing 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.
"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)."
After Vingegaard, who started the day in second, crashed out 20km from the finish, suffering what looked like a broken collarbone, Pogacar increased his lead in the overall standings to five minutes.
"Jonas sustained a fractured collarbone and multiple abrasions. Due to the severity of the collarbone fracture, surgical intervention has been recommended and will be performed in the coming days," his Visma-Lease a Bike team said in a quick statement.
"I mean, it's really bad news in the first place for himself, for his team and also for the race that he's out," added Evenepoel, who two years ago finished third overall behind Pogacar and Vingegaard.
"It's something you never wish to anybody.
"After that, you have to refocus and try to go for the maximum."
The Belgian, a former winner of the Vuelta a Espana, moved up to second overall.
