OFFICIAL Stage 15 Results: Jonas Vingegaard, Tim Merlier ABANDON!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Tour de France Gamers!
STAGE Grade: A
I rate today’s stage an A. Sadly, Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour-ending crash is a big part of that story. The scenery was just as beautiful, it was a great route, but without that crash, not much would have happened today. A highly rated stage for the wrong reasons.
Route: 4/5 GC: 5/5 Tactics: 3/5 Sprint: 3/5 Surprises: 5/5
“The Tour de France,” said Joop Zoetemelk, the 1980 Tour winner, “you win in bed.” He meant: anyone can win a bike race. A grand tour, three whole weeks of bike racing, you can only win if you rest and recover. That’s why pro teams bring their own mattresses to the hotels. Sleep is critical.
At 2 AM last night, Jonas Vingegaard was woken up to submit a urine sample for drug testing. Three hours later, Tadej Pogačar was woken up, same reason. Twenty years ago, when EPO doping was rampant, it was the French doping control that brought down the Festina and TVM teams. That’s good, if you want a clean race. But as Lance Armstrong enjoyed saying: “I've been tested 500 times and I've never failed a drug test.” It wasn’t 500, it was probably 200. His point is well-taken: there seems to be no correlation between testing riders and detecting who’s doping. Armstrong has his own explanations, but the only thing I believe about him is that he is the only seven-team Tour de France winner.
That paragraph packed a lot. Go ahead and read it a few times. Then let’s move on.
In hindsight, you can point out that where Jonas Vingegaard crashed today should have been designed differently. The traffic island invited half the peloton to go left in the right-hand turn, but then there was no room to complete the turn before hitting the curb. That’s hindsight. In practice, I would have crashed there or caused a crash, riding at that speed. The road itself is completely indifferent to its victims. This time it picked Vingegaard, it can happen to anyone.
The immediate consequence of Vingegaard’s crash was that Quinn Simmons had an actual chance to win the stage. Shocked from the crash, waiting for a possible return of riders, and a Visma | Lease-a-Bike team that was no longer pushing the pace, the peloton took some time to regain their momentum.
In the end it wasn’t even close, as nothing involving Pogačar ever is. When he accelerated, without even getting out of the saddle, only Isaac del Toro and Remco Evenepoel could follow. The predictable happened: Simmons was passed like a recreational rider. That Simmons was able to drop back and save both Juan Ayuso’s and Mattias Skjelmose’s race only leads us to conclude that Simmons is riding the Tour of his life.
The top three of the Tour were headed for a stage win. I wondered what Pogačar had in mind. The way he was going didn’t seem full gas; I thought he probably intended for del Toro to win. Even when it became clear that del Toro couldn’t beat Evenepoel, Pogačar’s attitude didn’t change. With hundreds of meters to go, there was a gap between del Toro who had attacked, and Evenepoel who had caught him. Evenepoel probably didn’t see it, that was the perfect moment to attack even if Pogačar wanted to win the stage.
I can’t feel Pogačar’s legs. In fact, I can’t feel anyone’s legs, only mine. So I can’t really tell if he couldn’t beat Evenepoel in a sprint fought at 100%. Regardless, Evenepoel still had to outrace Pogačar, even if it was at 99%. A class win by the Belgian.
The time limit was 50 minutes today, and nobody was in serious trouble. Søren Wærenskjold was the last rider to finish and he had over eleven minute to spare.
Just ahead of him, in the grupetto with sprinters Huub Artz and Jasper Philipsen, was Mattéo Vercher. He’s our focus rider of the day, thanks to Team Sam.
I don’t know what Vercher was doing in that grupetto. His sprinter, Anthony Turgis, was ten minutes ahead of him. Sometimes riders pick a grupetto based on compatriots, but Vercher was surrounded by Dutch-speaking men. It is true that thirty seconds ahead there were three French riders, including teammate Thibault Guernalec. Both are breakaway specialists. It’s likely they rode in the grupetto until the final kilometers, and then Vercher sat up the rest of the way. Suffer as little as possible.
Career-wise, Vercher is a typical of the riders you see in breakaways. One career victory in a one-day race none of us have ever heard of. He was third in stage 4 of this year’s Tour Auvergne – Rhône-Alpes; Quinn Simmons won that race.
We may see him in a breakaway on Wednesday. On Monday he’ll rest like everyone, on Tuesday he’ll rest like 66% of the peloton — it’s the individual time trial. He’ll be ready to go on Wednesday.
Watch the final kilometer HERE.
Watch the FloBikes highlights HERE.
Watch NBC Sports’ Extended highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Today’s abandons are fairly meaningless for our game. Jonas Vingegaard was on everyone’s team except Team Cameron and Team Wesley; but they are mired in tenth and twelfth place in the standings.
Same for Tim Merlier: only Team Cameron, Team Grace and Team Wesley don’t have him, and Team Grace is similarly mired in eleventh place.
Spoiler alert: There were no changes in the standings today.
Team Ansel continue their dominance: most points overall, most points from the stage, tied for most points from classifications, tied for most riders in the Top-25 (nine). Team Tadej were second, also with most points from classifications. Those two outdistanced everyone else.
Team Hugo took third, Team Josh fourth.
Another shoot-out to Team Wesley, who took fifth today and also had nine riders in the Top-25. They were: Abel Balderstone, Isaac del Toro, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Tadej Pogačar, Mauro Schmid, Paul Seixas, Quinn Simmons, and Mattias Skjelmose.
Sixth place was a tie between Team Caleb and Team Matthew. In eighth we found Team Charlies, Team Oliver ninth and Team Amalia tenth. Two teams missed the boat today: Team Cameron in eleventh and Team Grace in twelfth.
Monday is a rest day, assuming the doping control stays quiet. We’ll resume racing on Tuesday with an individual time trial. For once, I won’t write down Pogačar’s name as the winner. Evenepoel is the Olympic champion, three times and the current world champion. The first third is almost ten kilometers climbing at just over 4%. Then it’s ten kilometers of descending. Then ten kilometers of flat. The best time trial racer will win the stage — and I think that’s Evenepoel. My only concern is the technical turns in the final kilometers. Pogačar is objectively the better bike handler. That is a factor, but Evenepoel is simply faster in a stage like that. He will win two in a row.
Standings after stage 15:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Ansel* |
3571 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Tadej* |
3467 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Josh* |
3416 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Hugo* |
3178 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Charles* |
3053 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Caleb* |
2853 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Matthew* |
2792 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Oliver* |
2627 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Amalia* |
2442 |
9 |
0 |
|
10 |
Team Wesley* |
1887 |
10 |
0 |
|
11 |
Team Grace* |
1323 |
11 |
0 |
|
12 |
Team Cameron* |
1025 |
12 |
0 |
Standings after stage 15 (including dogs and adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Ansel* |
3559 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Kent |
3454 |
3 |
1 |
|
3 |
Team Tadej* |
3453 |
2 |
-1 |
|
4 |
Team Kari |
3441 |
5 |
1 |
|
5 |
Team Josh* |
3404 |
4 |
-1 |
|
6 |
Team Amelia |
3386 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Melanie |
3330 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Eric |
3289 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Rob |
3271 |
9 |
0 |
|
10 |
Team Jon |
3217 |
10 |
0 |
|
11 |
Team Kurt |
3167 |
13 |
2 |
|
12 |
Team Hugo* |
3166 |
11 |
-1 |
|
13 |
Team Craig |
3157 |
12 |
-1 |
|
14 |
Team Julie |
3093 |
14 |
0 |
|
15 |
Team Jonwaine |
3056 |
16 |
1 |
|
16 |
Team Charles* |
3044 |
15 |
-1 |
|
17 |
Team Laurens |
2976 |
18 |
1 |
|
18 |
Team Ed |
2974 |
17 |
-1 |
|
19 |
Team Corsa |
2895 |
19 |
0 |
|
20 |
Team Caleb* |
2844 |
20 |
0 |
|
21 |
Team Ambrose |
2795 |
21 |
0 |
|
22 |
Team Matthew* |
2783 |
22 |
0 |
|
23 |
Team Kate |
2721 |
23 |
0 |
|
24 |
Team Grace |
2649 |
24 |
0 |
|
25 |
Team Oliver* |
2624 |
25 |
0 |
|
26 |
Team Ellie |
2582 |
26 |
0 |
|
27 |
Team Adam |
2530 |
27 |
0 |
|
28 |
Team Charlotte |
2526 |
29 |
1 |
|
29 |
Team Cameron |
2511 |
28 |
-1 |
|
30 |
Team Jonathan |
2499 |
30 |
0 |
|
31 |
Team Amalia* |
2437 |
31 |
0 |
|
32 |
Team Erin |
2311 |
33 |
1 |
|
33 |
Team Suzanne |
2295 |
32 |
-1 |
|
34 |
Team Furner |
2221 |
34 |
0 |
|
35 |
Team Allison |
2161 |
35 |
0 |
|
36 |
Team Lichterman |
2153 |
36 |
0 |
|
37 |
Team Wesley |
2000 |
37 |
0 |
|
38 |
Team Chris |
1978 |
38 |
0 |
|
39 |
Team Wesley* |
1878 |
41 |
2 |
|
40 |
Team Senna# |
1856 |
39 |
-1 |
|
41 |
Team Izzy |
1814 |
40 |
-1 |
|
42 |
Team Valerie |
1406 |
42 |
0 |
|
43 |
Team Grace* |
1323 |
43 |
0 |
|
44 |
Team Cameron* |
1023 |
44 |
0 |
|
45 |
Team Sam |
993 |
45 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 15:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
YELLOW JERSEY |
GREEN JERSEY |
POLKA DOT JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
COMBATIVE |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
130 |
33 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
0 |
49 |
179 |
2263 |
2442 |
|
Team Ansel* |
204 |
51 |
13 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
84 |
288 |
3283 |
3571 |
|
Team Caleb* |
166 |
42 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
2 |
70 |
236 |
2617 |
2853 |
|
Team Cameron* |
77 |
14 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
23 |
100 |
925 |
1025 |
|
Team Charles* |
161 |
42 |
13 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
72 |
233 |
2820 |
3053 |
|
Team Grace* |
60 |
12 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
21 |
81 |
1242 |
1323 |
|
Team Hugo* |
173 |
45 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
0 |
78 |
251 |
2927 |
3178 |
|
Team Josh* |
168 |
47 |
13 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
80 |
248 |
3168 |
3416 |
|
Team Matthew* |
166 |
42 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
2 |
70 |
236 |
2556 |
2792 |
|
Team Oliver* |
137 |
36 |
12 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
61 |
198 |
2429 |
2627 |
|
Team Tadej* |
199 |
50 |
12 |
8 |
14 |
0 |
84 |
283 |
3184 |
3467 |
|
Team Wesley* |
181 |
44 |
0 |
8 |
9 |
2 |
63 |
244 |
1643 |
1887 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 15 (including dogs and adults):
|
127 |
32 |
7 |
11 |
12 |
2 |
64 |
191 |
2351 |
2542 |
|
|
Team Allison |
121 |
30 |
8 |
6 |
9 |
0 |
53 |
174 |
1996 |
2170 |
|
Team Amalia* |
130 |
33 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
0 |
49 |
179 |
2263 |
2442 |
|
Team Ambrose |
128 |
36 |
13 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
66 |
194 |
2610 |
2804 |
|
Team Amelia |
202 |
52 |
10 |
8 |
15 |
0 |
85 |
287 |
3114 |
3401 |
|
Team Ansel* |
204 |
51 |
13 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
84 |
288 |
3283 |
3571 |
|
Team Caleb* |
166 |
42 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
2 |
70 |
236 |
2617 |
2853 |
|
Team Cameron |
129 |
31 |
9 |
11 |
9 |
0 |
60 |
189 |
2331 |
2520 |
|
Team Cameron* |
77 |
14 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
23 |
100 |
925 |
1025 |
|
Team Charles* |
161 |
42 |
13 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
72 |
233 |
2820 |
3053 |
|
Team Charlotte |
160 |
36 |
4 |
14 |
11 |
0 |
65 |
225 |
2312 |
2537 |
|
Team Chris |
119 |
28 |
4 |
8 |
4 |
0 |
44 |
163 |
1819 |
1982 |
|
Team Corsa |
171 |
45 |
12 |
8 |
12 |
2 |
79 |
250 |
2657 |
2907 |
|
Team Craig |
167 |
46 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
0 |
82 |
249 |
2920 |
3169 |
|
Team Ed |
167 |
42 |
12 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
71 |
238 |
2745 |
2983 |
|
Team Ellie |
156 |
32 |
12 |
9 |
8 |
2 |
63 |
219 |
2371 |
2590 |
|
Team Eric |
198 |
47 |
12 |
15 |
12 |
2 |
88 |
286 |
3015 |
3301 |
|
Team Erin |
169 |
31 |
3 |
11 |
6 |
2 |
53 |
222 |
2095 |
2317 |
|
Team Furner |
133 |
32 |
4 |
10 |
13 |
0 |
59 |
192 |
2042 |
2234 |
|
Team Grace |
136 |
34 |
12 |
9 |
8 |
0 |
63 |
199 |
2458 |
2657 |
|
Team Grace* |
60 |
12 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
21 |
81 |
1242 |
1323 |
|
Team Hugo* |
173 |
45 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
0 |
78 |
251 |
2927 |
3178 |
|
Team Izzy |
87 |
18 |
9 |
8 |
5 |
0 |
40 |
127 |
1692 |
1819 |
|
Team Jon |
192 |
48 |
12 |
8 |
14 |
0 |
82 |
274 |
2957 |
3231 |
|
Team Jonathan |
179 |
44 |
0 |
6 |
8 |
2 |
60 |
239 |
2268 |
2507 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
221 |
54 |
0 |
11 |
14 |
0 |
79 |
300 |
2770 |
3070 |
|
Team Josh* |
168 |
47 |
13 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
80 |
248 |
3168 |
3416 |
|
Team Julie |
160 |
41 |
12 |
11 |
12 |
0 |
76 |
236 |
2869 |
3105 |
|
Team Kari |
218 |
50 |
12 |
11 |
14 |
2 |
89 |
307 |
3148 |
3455 |
|
Team Kate |
148 |
32 |
12 |
9 |
3 |
2 |
58 |
206 |
2518 |
2724 |
|
Team Kent |
202 |
50 |
12 |
11 |
14 |
0 |
87 |
289 |
3179 |
3468 |
|
Team Kurt |
185 |
41 |
13 |
15 |
11 |
2 |
82 |
267 |
2911 |
3178 |
|
Team Laurens |
188 |
49 |
5 |
11 |
12 |
0 |
77 |
265 |
2723 |
2988 |
|
Team Lichterman |
115 |
24 |
12 |
7 |
6 |
2 |
51 |
166 |
1993 |
2159 |
|
Team Matthew* |
166 |
42 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
2 |
70 |
236 |
2556 |
2792 |
|
Team Melanie |
169 |
45 |
13 |
11 |
12 |
0 |
81 |
250 |
3092 |
3342 |
|
Team Oliver* |
137 |
36 |
12 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
61 |
198 |
2429 |
2627 |
|
Team Rob |
187 |
51 |
12 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
83 |
270 |
3013 |
3283 |
|
Team Sam |
63 |
17 |
0 |
7 |
4 |
0 |
28 |
91 |
906 |
997 |
|
Team Senna# |
95 |
21 |
9 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
36 |
131 |
1725 |
1856 |
|
Team Suzanne |
151 |
36 |
3 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
56 |
207 |
2097 |
2304 |
|
Team Tadej* |
199 |
50 |
12 |
8 |
14 |
0 |
84 |
283 |
3184 |
3467 |
|
Team Valerie |
30 |
10 |
9 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
54 |
1352 |
1406 |
|
Team Wesley |
117 |
23 |
9 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
40 |
157 |
1843 |
2000 |
|
Team Wesley* |
181 |
44 |
0 |
8 |
9 |
2 |
63 |
244 |
1643 |
1887 |
Allez le Tour!
-Laurens.