End of an era - Slovenians take over from Ineos as Bernal collapses | Video

Slovenia 1-2: Pogacar wins atop the Grand Colombier from Roglic as Bernal was over seven minutes back the road

At the end of stage 15 of the Tour de France today Slovenian riders won the day and extended their lead in the overall while Ineos Grenadiers suffered an absolute collapse, for the first time ever since they first won the race.

The signs were there already, for weeks before the Tour
began and also from the start of the race a fortnight ago, that Ineos
Grenadiers was not the team it used to be.

That was confirmed today when reigning Tour champion Egan
Bernal was dropped by the favourites group a massive 13km from the top of the
Grand Colombier as five Jumbo Visma riders were controlling the front of the select
group.

By the top of the climb Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) sprinted in ahead of fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) to win the stage from his friend and compatriot.

Advertisement

These are the two strongest riders in the race, by far it
seems, and Pogačar could yet mug the juggernaut that is Jumbo Visma and beat
Pogacar to the yellow jersey in Paris next Sunday.

Bernal’s collapse may well be linked to illness or
perhaps another problem not yet diagnosed but it was a red letter day for the
team.

Not since Bradley Wiggins got the ball rolling for Team
Sky with their first Tour win has the British WorldTour outfit collapsed like
this at the Tour.

Only once since the Wiggins victory in 2012 has Team-Sky/Team Ineos/Ineos Grenadiers not won the Tour, when Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) won in 2014. But on that occasion Chris Froome crashed out and there was no collapse in performance.

Related News

Back to today, Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) rode
well and looks like he is on the way back; placing 21st at 5:14 on a stage for
the ages. Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) was 86th at 33:51.

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) gained a number of
points on Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) at the intermediate sprint before
settling into the groupetto.

Richie Porte, the popular Australian who has looked
reborn on this Tour, took 3rd on today’s stage. The Trek-Segafredo man took it
up in the last kilometre only to be passed by the Slovenians and ceding five
seconds to them in the sprint for the line.

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) was 4th at eight seconds, Enric Mas (Movistar) was 5th at some 15 seconds, Sepp Kuss, a revelation for Jumbo-Visma of late, was 6th at some 15 seconds.

Roglic and his Jumbo Visma team have been so impressive so far. But they are also carrying Pogacar along and he may yet win the race overall

Then came Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) in 7th at 15
seconds with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) 8th, also at 15 seconds. Rigoberto Uran
(EF Pro Cycling) was 9th at some 18 second and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
was 10th at some 24 seconds.

In the end Egan Bernal was only 25th on the stage,
limping home 7:20 down on a very difficult day for the Colombian who, for the
first time, is shouldering all of the pressure as team leader on the race.

That result means Ineos Grenadiers are now out of the
race for yellow, with Roglic leading Pogacar by 40 seconds now having lost a
valuable time bonus to him in the sprint for stage victory today.

Now up into 3rd is the old stager Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro
Cycling) at 1:34 with another Colombian, Miguel Angel Lopez, in 4th at 1:45
followed by Ineos Grenadiers-bound Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in 5th at 2:03.

As well as Bernal’s challenge collapsing today, so too
did Nairo Quintana’s, the Arkea Samsic rider finishing 18th some 3:50 behind
Pogacar and Roglic.

More to come.

Topics
feature

Related News