Wout Poels powers to win at Tour de France while Jonas Vingegaard maintains lead

Bahrain Victorious rider takes honours on Stage 15 that was held up by huge crash caused by fan taking selfie

Dutch rider Wout Poels wins Stage 15 of the Tour de France on July 16, 2023. EPA

Bahrain Victorious rider Wout Poels won Stage 15 of the Tour de France on Sunday while Jonas Vingegaard maintained his 10-second overall lead over Tadej Pogacar.

Poels was the last survivor of a big breakaway group that had gone clear of the main peloton after a crash caused by a spectator 50 kilometres in reshaped the 179km stage from Les Gets to Saint-Gervais.

The 35-year-old came to the foot of the final climb up to Saint-Gervais with Wout van Aert but immediately attacked as the road ramped up and gradually eased clear to take the win by more than two minutes.

Jumba Visma's Van Aert was second almost a minute ahead of TotalEnergies rider Mathieu Burgaudeau in third.

Reigning champion Vingegaard and two-time winner Pogacar, who crossed the line side by side, finished more than six minutes behind Poels.

“I always dreamt to win a stage in the tour, especially what happened in the last few weeks with Gino [Mader]. All the emotions came. I've won a monument and a tour stage,” said Poels, who is the 68th stage winner from the Netherlands at the Tour de France.

“I started to believe in the last kilometre, I had to keep fighting. I went full gas. It was amazing.

“I didn't have the perfect preparation for the Tour. The team took me here, they believed in me. Here we are.

“I really enjoyed my period with Sky, being in the winning team four times. But finally I can fight for a stage win today. It's great.”

Pogacar, meanwhile, is happy with how the race is looking going into a much-needed rest day for riders, despite failing to cut into Vingegaard's lead.

“I felt that Jonas was super good and I knew that I couldn't really drop him,” said the Slovenian. “The climb was too easy. We tried to improvise in the end and Adam [Yates] took some seconds also. It's good that he's coming back in the GC and close to the podium.

“I think we can go with big, big confidence. We have good legs and everybody is super good. Now tomorrow, a rest day. Let's see after that and then it's two stages to go full gas for the team.

“I know the time trial pretty good. I hope it suits me pretty well. It's a really good parcours and I cannot wait to start it.”

Earlier in the race, three of Vingegaard's teammates crashed after a spectator taking a selfie prompted a mass pile-up of 20 riders.

With about 125km remaining Team Jumbo-Visma rider Sepp Kuss had his handlebars knocked by a supporter who was holding out a phone.

Kuss swerved into teammate Nathan van Hooydonck, who fell off his bike, causing a crash behind him. All the riders were able to continue.

“There was a narrowing in a town, just a spectator was out in the road and just clipped my handlebar,” Kuss said about the mass crash. “Luckily I'm OK I think. I hope that the other guys in the crash are all right. It's not ideal.

“It's been such a hard race, everybody is a bit tired and you lose a bit of alertness. There are always things that are a bit out of your control as well. Aside from nervous moments, sometimes there are crashes because of fatigue.”