Pogačar and Vingegaard lock horns again as Wout Poels takes stage 15 | Tour de France | Sticky Bottle

*Wout Poels has every right to be delighted as he cruised to a solo win on* *stage 15 (Photo: Pauline Ballet)*

Cycling veteran Wout Poels of Bahrain Victorious has taken his first-ever Tour de France stage win after joining an early breakaway 140km out from the finish on a hectic stage which saw a spectator cause a mega-crash in the peloton.

Poels found himself in a large group towards the beginning of the stage which including several notable names such as 12 & 13 stage winners respectively Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Warren Barguil (Arkéa–Samsic), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama–FDJ), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal–Quick-Step) and teammate Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious).

Just as it seemed the front group were struggling to establish a meaningful gap to the peloton with just a matter of seconds the difference, a massive crash occurs at the front of the main group, a large portion of the peloton went down as a spectator stuck out their arm to take a selfie and pushes Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma).

The incident stalled many riders, and subsequently allowed the escapees to build a lead of over 4 minutes, just 12km after the crash. The peloton collectively decided to slow down following the crash, with all riders involved thankfully able to continue.

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By the 100km to go mark, it was evident the peloton would let the 38-man breakaway have their fun with the stage as no one of serious GC significance was involved.

The oversized breakaway began to split over the next 50km as Poels, Krists Neilands (Israel–Premier Tech), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) pulled away from the rest with less than 35km to go.

After dropping Soler and Neilands crashing on a descent, Poels and Wout van Aert battled at the foot of the final climb (Côtes des Amerands). Poels quickly distanced himself from the Belgian time-trial champion and kept it that way as he would push onto to reach the peak first.

Another day brought another stalemate between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar as the two contenders could not be separated on the final climb of the day. Following many attempts to shake the Dane, Pogačar was unable to rattle Vingegaard as they crossed the line in unison once again, leaving no changes in the top 2 GC places.

Tomorrow is a much-deserved rest day for the peloton following 3 mountain stages in a row. The riders will return to a 22km time-trial which is sure to cause some splits in the General Classification standings.