Tour de France 2021: stage 15 – live!
- Updates as the race goes from Céret to Andorre-la-Vieille
- Mollema climbs to win as Tadej Pogacar tightens Tour de France grip
- William Fotheringham: Cyclo-cross trio are defining Tour de France
- Get in touch! Email John or tweet @JohnBrewin_
165km to go: You join us 25km into the stage and there’s already a pair of breakaway groups, and Thomas de Gendt has done what he normally does and gone from the get-go. Stephen Kruijswijk and Julian Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Dan Martin (Israel Start-up Nations), Ruben Guerreiro (EF Education-Nippo), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) and Sergio Henao (Team Qhubeka NextHash) are with them. There’s a warning out there that there may be gravel on the road as the descenders fly down. Behind them is a group featuring Wout van Aert, Alejandro Valverde, Sepp Kuss, Michael Woods, Vincenzo Nibali and Davide Gaudu. Pogacar is in a group with Carapaz, and for now, Mark Cavendish, who has managed not to be dropped on the early climb over Montée de Mont-Louis. That will come as some relief.
After Saturday’s breakaway, a mountain stage if not for the ages but one that will be tough as Le Tour goes off-piste in the Pyrenees and into Andorra, home of duty free and skiing. Tadej Pogacar’s mountain legs will get another test, though it has to be said that nobody has been able to live with him so far within the bruised and battered peloton. It gets pretty lumpy but there is no summit finish, which have been an endangered species during this year’s renewal. At the back the pack, the likes of Mark Cavendish will be trying to hang on in the grupetto, and keep within the time limit or safety in numbers. There’s a rest day tomorrow but this will be a long, hard day in the saddle for all concerned and is a chance for Pogacar to turn the screw.
from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Vxlj2r
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