Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel dug deep to win a thrilling three-way sprint against Tadej Pogačar and Isaac Del Toro to claim a memorable Stage 15 victory. Photo: AFP
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel beat race leader Tadej Pogačar in a sprint finish to take Sunday's 15th stage of the Tour de France, as former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out.
Evenepoel edged out the reigning champion at the end of the tough 11 km-long climb to the finish. Pogačar's UAE Emirates-XRG teammate Isaac Del Toro was third, six seconds back.
"It's amazing. I'm literally trembling from emotion," Evenepoel said, at the finish of the 183.9km stage from Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison, after his first Tour road-stage victory following two time-trial successes.
"It's been a hell of a day. A pretty hard start, I was actually feeling really bad in the beginning, but I really got better and better during the day. You have to understand how I'm racing with the best rider ever (Pogačar), and he has been doing a hell of a climb to try to win the stage with Isaac (Del Toro)."
