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Monday, July 21, 2025

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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him. - Booker T. Washington

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Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the 2024 Tour de France: The Happy Warrior Triumphs is available print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the link on the right.

Current racing:

• July 5 - 27: Tour de France

Upcoming racing:

• August 2: San Sebastian Classic

Latest completed racing:

• June 21 - 29: Most national road championships
• June 24: Giro dell'Appennino
• June 15 - 22: Tour de Suisse
• June 18 - 22: Baloise Belgium Tour
• July 9 - 13: Tour of Austria
• June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 13: GP Kanton Aargau
• June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
• May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia

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Tour de France stage 15 team reports

We posted the race organizer's stage 15 report with the results.

Here's the report from second & fourth place riders Campenaerts & Van Aert's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:

Victor Campenaerts and Wout van Aert went on the offensive in stage 15 of the Tour de France. The Belgian duo from Team Visma | Lease a Bike made it into the early breakaway and, after another grueling day, finished with strong results. Campenaerts took second place, while Van Aert crossed the line in fourth.

After three brutal days in the Pyrenees, the peloton faced a so-called transitional stage today, with a rest day looming tomorrow. The route featured several climbs, making it a perfect day for attackers. Campenaerts and Van Aert seized the opportunity to go up the road.

With 30 kilometers remaining, Tim Wellens launched a sharp acceleration from a group of eight that included Campenaerts. The Belgian tried to follow but had no answer to his compatriot’s fierce attack. Wellens quickly built a gap of over a minute. Just as Van Aert rejoined Campenaerts’ group, the latter dug deep one more time to secure second place. Van Aert sprinted from the chase group to finish fourth.

Jonas Vingegaard headed to the start line. Sirotti photo

“We had a plan today to get multiple riders in the break,” Campenaerts said afterward. “Luckily, that worked out. But it was a really hard day. Cycling in 2025 is so different compared to a few years ago. Nowadays, the finale starts more than 100 kilometers from the finish. Once we finally made it into the break, there was no time to recover.”

Campenaerts also praised the stage winner. “Tim played it smart and was very strong. When he went, we quickly realized we wouldn’t bring him back. Just as Wout made it back to our group, he told me in the radio to go for second place. That was the maximum for us today.”

Here's the Tour report from third-place Julian Alaphilippe's Tudor Pro Cycling Team:

Stage 15 from Muret to Carcassonne promised a golden chance for the breakaway specialists, especially after three grueling days in the Pyrenees that had left the GC contenders battle-worn. For us, it was all about seizing that opportunity.

The day didn’t start in our favor. A setback came early as Julian hit the ground in a crash. But showing true grit, the Frenchman remounted, fought his way back into the peloton, and stayed in contention despite a blistering pace and a flurry of early attacks.

Julian Alaphilippe heads to the start line. Sirotti photo

By the 70km mark, a dangerous breakaway had formed, without any of our riders. That meant only one thing: we had to work. The team moved to the front, pushing the tempo and setting up Michael Storer for a decisive move. At 96km to go, the Aussie launched a strong solo attack, bridging to the 17-man break.

But he wasn’t done yet. With 56km remaining, Storer lit it up again, breaking clear with three others to form a new leading quartet. It looked promising. However, when Tim Wellens counterattacked at 43km to go, Michael missed the move. Despite a committed chase, the front group couldn’t hold the gap back in as the stage reached its closing kilometers.

Julian, who was part of the chase group sprinted his heart out, crossed the finish line as first of group and lifted his arms in the air believing he had won. Unfortunately, Wellens and Campenearts had crossed the line already.  The early crash left Julian without radio and the fast pace didn’t allow for a radio change. Disappointment is huge tonight.

Julian scored our second podium in this year’s Tour de France while Michael Storer was names most combative rider of the day.

Michael: “It was a very tricky day today especially after the crash in the bunch at km 17. I had to try to make the difference in the steep climb, but I didn’t manage unfortunately although it was a very good effort. Afterwards, I knew my chances were slim to get a good result in that kind of group because the climbs were finished. It is nice to stand on the podium as most combative rider but it’s not the same as winning a stage”.

In today’s crash in the early stage, Julian subluxated his left shoulder. He underwent X-ray at the finish in Carcassone which showed no fractures.

Here's the stage 15 report from Axel Laurance's Team INEOS Grenadiers:

Axel Laurance sprinted to fifth in a last gasp effort on stage 15 of the Tour de France as Carlos Rodriguez moved up to ninth on the GC after his breakaway antics.

A tight sprint finish on the line saw Laurance challenged by Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Wout Van Aert (Visma Lease A Bike) to take fifth as Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates - XRG) soloed to the win.

Rodriguez finished as part of the same group and moved up to ninth on the GC after being in the break for half of the 169km stage.

Stage 15 about to get started. Sirotti photo

Heading up the Côte de Sorèze with 85km to go, Rodriguez managed to bridge over to the front group to form an eight-man breakaway. As they started to descend, they had a 41 second gap, before Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Quinn Simmonds (Lidl-Trek) accelerated up the final hill of the day, the Pas du Sant.

The pair were joined by Victor Campenaerts (Visma Lease A Bike) and Wellens, with Wellens eventually going clear with 40km remaining.

Rodriguez continued to push on the descent into Carcassonne as part of the chasing group of seven riders. Campenaerts accelerated solo with 2km to go as the third group caught the chasers onto the home straight, with Laurance launching his sprint to take fifth.

And here's the Tour stage 15 report from Team Soudal Quick-Step:

Carcassonne, the stunning medieval city where Mark Cavendish tied Eddy Merckx for most stage wins in the history of the Tour de France, returned at the race for the first time since 2021, when the Brit – sporting our jersey – achieved this remarkable milestone. Coming after three leg-sapping days in the Pyrenees, stage 15 had breakaway written all over it, and this made for an incredibly fast start, with the peloton traveling at more than 50km/h in the first hour of the day.

Tim Wellens leaves the break behind with 40km to go.

A crash at the back of the bunch in the opening 30 kilometers made things more nervous, as many of the GC riders were involved in that incident and had to chase hard in order to return in the group, while at the front others were doing their best to book a place in the breakaway. When this finally took shape, Pascal Eenkhoorn was there for Soudal Quick-Step, and the former Dutch Champion put in a strong effort on this hard day of racing to take 13th place behind solo winner Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates).

It was the fourth stage finish this century in Carcassonne, and one that saw the general classification remain unchanged ahead of the rest day. The race resumes on Tuesday with another challenging stage to the mythical Mont Ventoux, the perfect terrain for more fireworks between the contenders.

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