After going solo with 30km to go, Belgian champion Tim Wellens wins Stage 15 of the 2025 Tour de France. He becomes the 113th rider to take stage wins in all three Grand Tours, just a couple of months after Wout van Aert became the 112th.
No big changes expected in the G.C. battle as the race leaders finished together. The only change in the top ten is Carlos Rodriguez taking Ben Healy‘s 9th position in the overall standings.
One for the Sprinters?
Stage 15 of the 2025 Tour de France was a hilly 169.3km route from Muret to Carcassonne. While the stage does not serve up the monster hills of the Pyrenees that the peloton faced over the last several days, it is not flat by any measure. It may be a day for the sprinters, but climbs late in the stage may break their plans.
Weather throughout the day was expected to be variable, with the chance of both storms and sun. The only consistency is the wind, which is expected to be in the rider’s favor throughout the day.
Schmid and Abrahamsen attacked right off the line, with local rider Benjamin Thomas also making an appearance at the front. Americans Matteo Jorgensen and Neilson Powless both made a go of it as well.
Powless was able to open a gap, leading by 30 seconds by km 9. Foss, Lutsenko and Fedorov are on the chase, trailing Powless by 15 seconds
A crash in the peloton affected many riders, including Julian Alaphilippe, Florian Lipowitz and Lenny Martinez. But all were examined by the medical teams and made their way back into the peloton.
The attackers were caught at km 22.
With the move to catch the attack, the peloton split. Pogacar was in the lead group, but Vingegaard trailed by 54 seconds. He had three teammates with him.
Van der Poel went on the move at km 27. Eight more riders joined this move, including Kaden Groves and Victor Campenaerts.
Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ), Kaden Groves, Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matteo Vercher (Total Energies), Alexey Lutsenko (Israel Premier Tech) and Jarrad Drizners (Lotto) led the peloton by 10” at km 30. The group with Vingegaard and Lipowitz trailed by 1’00”.
Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL), Jake Stewart (Israel Premier Tech) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) then joined the nine riders at the front.
While the peloton regrouped and Alaphilippe was back with the yellow jersey group, the leaders, now 15 strong, were just 35 seconds ahead at km 44.
Vauquelin, Gall and Milan could not keep up the pace and returned to the bunch, while there were still some 40 riders at the back, including Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious).
At the intermediate sprint in Saint-Félix-Lauragais (km 59.8), it was Van der Poel taking the 20 points
The leading group had just under 1 minute on the peloton with less than 5 km to go before the first classified climb of the day.
The Côte de Saint-Ferréol was also the shortest: 1.7 km at 7%. On the approach, Tudor brought the gap down to less than 30 seconds. Simmons attacked but he was followed by Jorgenson, Pogacar, Vingegaard. Ultimately, it was Lutsenko dominating the first climb of the day.
The breakaway group both collects and sheds some riders after the climb. Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) and Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) are chasing 35” behind the leaders with 90 kilometres to go.
The chase did not stick, and soon after, Mohoric made an attack. Simmons and Storer follow him. In the bunch, Ivan Romeo (Movistar) set off with Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) following him.
The chase group soon picks up Oscar Onley and Carlos Rodriguez. Also in there are Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Alexey Lutsenko (Israel Premier Tech), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Warren Barguil (Picnic PostNL). They are 35” behind the leaders.
The second climb of the day, the Côte de Sorèze (6.2km at 5.5%) is on the horizon.
The chase group now has 27 riders: Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), Axel Laurance, Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Aleks Vlasov (Red Bull-Borah-Hansgrohe), Thibau Nys, Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Kaden Groves, Xandro Meurisse, Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), Jordan Jegat, Matteo Vercher (Total Energies), Warren Barguil, Tobias Lund Andresen, Frank Van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), Jake Stewart (Israel Premier Tech) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility).
Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Michael Storer (Tudor), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Alexey Lutsenko (Israel Premier Tech) are 30” ahead of the chase group.
Lutsenko took the KOM points.
Warren Barguil (Picnic PostNL) and Aleskander Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) joined the lead group just before the ascent of Pas du Sant (2.9km at 10.2%), the final climb of the day.
Michael Storer attacked from the bottom with Quinn Simmons following. Victor Campeanaerts chased with Tim Wellens on his wheel. Meanwhile, Joardan Jegat, Valentin Madouas and Thibau Nys trailed by 10”.
Storer attacked in the final kilometer of the climb, but Campenaerts and Wellens get back to Storer and Simmons with 54 km to go.
With 50km remaining, the gap to the peloton increased to 6 minutes. Uno-X Mobility and EF Education-EasyPost pulled the bunch. Carlos Rodriguez is moving past Ben Healy (9th) in the overall standings and threatening Tobias Johannessen’s 8th place.
A group of eight (Rodriguez, Vlasov, Barguil, Lutsenko, Wellens, Storer, Campenaerts and Simmons) are off the front with 44 km to go.
Then Wellens decided to go solo! With 30 km remaining, he pulled out to a 1 minute lead.
Quinn Simmons made an attempt to go after Wellens with 18km remaining, but with the Belgian champ 1’20” away, was it folly?
Wellens had a gap of 1’40” over the chasing group of seven with 10km to go.
In the final 5km, Simmons attacked again. Romeo and Van Aert were 10” further behind. The gap to the bunch was up to 7 minutes.
“A Special Victory”
“It is a very special victory. I think everybody knows the Tour de France, everybody wants to ride the Tour de France and not many people win in the Tour de France so it is a very beautiful victory,” Wellens told the media after the stage.
“I felt super good today. Even before the stage, Nils [Politt] and me were laughing a little bit that we would go in the break. Suddenly, there was a big crash, so I hope everything is ok. Tadej [Pogačar] said we try to block [the peloton] and we wait for this. But it kept on attacking and I followed one move and I was in the breakaway.
“On the climb, it exploded again and then on the last climb of the day, I felt really good. I saw the others also felt really good, but I knew that I had to go solo and at the top of the climb, I found my moment and I felt that I had the legs to go until the end.
“I had the opportunity, I took it and I had the legs to finish it. But, of course, I would trade my victory directly for Yellow with Tadej in Paris,” he concluded.
Stage 15 Brief Results:
- Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
- Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’28”
- Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), +1’36”
- Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’36”
- Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers), +1’36”
General Classification After Stage 15:
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) @ 54h 20’44”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) + 4’13”
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) + 7’53”
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