Wout Poels ends Grand Tour drought with victory on Mont Blanc, as Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard stays ahead after a fan’s selfie sparks massive pile-up
- Dutchman Wout Poels won his first Grand Tour stage in the Tour de France
- He finished ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar over Mont Blanc
- A spectator caused a serious crash on stage 15 involving several riders
Wout Poels won his first Grand Tour stage on a dramatic day culminating in a crash caused by a spectator.
Yellow jersey leader Jonas Vingegaard was 10 seconds clear of Tadej Pogacar as they finished the 197km stage 15 over the slopes of Mont Blanc together, six minutes behind Dutchman Poels, 35.
The peloton had been closely following a series of breakaway attempts early on, but when a young spectator taking a selfie on the road was hit by Vingegaard’s teammate Sepp Kuss 50km away, about a dozen riders went down, causing the main group to slow down and almost 40 riders to get away. Kuss’s elbow had to be heavily bandaged.
Poels, riding his 10th Tour after being part of four winning teams with Team Sky and the Ineos Grenadiers, took a second stage win of this race for the Bahrain-Victorious team and dedicated it to Gino Mader, his teammate who died after a fall at the Tour de Suisse last month.
“I always dreamed of winning a stage in the Tour and especially with what happened in the team with Gino in recent weeks… it’s all emotions,” said Poels.
Wout Poels won his first Grand Tour stage over Mont Blanc in the Tour de France
A spectator caused a serious crash involving a large number of riders during stage 15 on Sunday
‘I am super satisfied. I only started to believe in the last kilometer and just had to fight on.’
Monday is the last day of rest before Tuesday’s 22.4km time trial from Passy to Combloux.