Wellens pulls off masterful solo and takes stunning Tour de France victory in Carcassonne in Belgian national jersey

The trio of stages in the Pyrenee mountains had taken a serious toll on the riders, but the peloton was not allowed to rest yet. Sunday’s stage to Carcassonne awaited, and stage 15 was no walk in the park either: with 2,300 meters of climbing, it was likely too difficult for the sprinters, and the attackers knew this was their moment in the hills.

The race was on from the very start. Tension was high from kilometer zero, which quickly led to a major crash. Julian Alaphilippe and Florian Lipowitz were among those who went down, and Jonas Vingegaard was also delayed. The high pace at the front immediately created gaps in the peloton, with the second- and third-placed riders in the GC forced to chase. Meanwhile, Tadej Pogacar stayed sharp near the front, remaining among the top 30 throughout.

When he heard who had been dropped, he stopped pushing. That allowed his rivals to rejoin the group after about half an hour of chasing. At the same time, 15 riders managed to break away and not just any riders. Mathieu van der Poel joined the front group, even though he said he wasn’t feeling great. He was accompanied by teammate Kaden Groves, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates), Wout van Aert, Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), and several other powerhouses.

Jonathan Milan was targeting the intermediate sprint, which came 60 kilometers into the stage. He put his team on the front, which kept the gap from growing too large. But the breakaway was so strong that they couldn’t close it either. As a result, the sprint went to the breakaway group, won by Van der Poel, as no one was fighting for it. That brought him within 40 points of the Italian Lidl-Trek rider.

When the road really started to climb, cracks began to show among the breakaway riders. Matej Mohoric, Tim Wellens, Victor Campenaerts, Neilson Powless, and Alexey Lutsenko pulled away from the rest, who could feel the peloton breathing down their necks. Back there, chaos broke out again as a large group of riders bridged across. From that group, Quinn Simmons, Carlos Rodríguez, and Michael Storer jumped ahead to join the leaders, forming a new front group of eight.

Behind them, Van der Poel and Van Aert were joined by about 25 riders, names like Thibau Nys, Frank van den Broek, Iván Romeo, and Ben O'Connor clearly had plans. But they had to chase, because the front eight were keeping a strong pace. After the Côte de Sorèze climb, the gap was 40 seconds. The peloton, now once again under control of UAE Team Emirates – XRG, trailed nearly three minutes behind the race leaders.

All eyes were on the Pas du Sant, the key climb of the day. Its summit came more than 50 kilometers from the finish, but it was a real leg-breaker: 3 kilometers at an average gradient of over 9%. Just before the base, riders like Andreas Leknessund, Warren Barguil, and Aleksandr Vlasov managed to bridge up to the lead group, but everything exploded again on the climb itself. Only the four strongest climbers remained: Michael Storer, Quinn Simmons, Victor Campenaerts, and Tim Wellens. They extended their lead over the chasers.

But once over the top, the pace dropped and cooperation disappeared. The race started to come back together like a stretched accordion. Rodríguez, Lutsenko, Vlasov, and Barguil did manage to organize and close the gap. They caught up with the leaders with 42 kilometers to go and Wellens didn’t like that one bit. With a little help from the race motorcycle, he launched a powerful solo attack. No one could follow. Within moments, he had a 15-second gap... and it only kept growing.

Behind the Belgian champion, the chase group started to come together: seven riders set off in pursuit, but it didn’t matter. Wellens was flying and kept pulling further ahead. It quickly became clear who was the strongest rider of the day: with 10 kilometers to go, his lead was over a minute and a half. Meanwhile, the chasers began to worry they’d be caught by a group including Wout van Aert.

Wellens had time to celebrate from 3 kilometers out, he raised his fist and took his time crossing the line in the French castle city. Campenaerts managed to jump out of the second group and secured second place. The rest of the chasers came together, and Julian Alaphilippe beat Van Aert in the sprint for third place.