Stage 15 of the 2026 Tour de France will be remembered for being the day Remco Evenepoel won his first-ever Tour road stage ahead of race leader Tadej Pogačar and his young henchman, Isaac Del Toro. But until the dust settles on the Plateau de Solaison, the whole race and all who follow it are reeling in the aftermath of the crash that sent second-overall Jonas Vingegaard from the race in an ambulance.
The early half of the stage was characterised by a drawn-out fight for the breakaway, which culminated in a move of 24 getting up the road, containing Tom Pidcock for the third day in a row. The Briton was one of the last half-dozen survivors after he and his teammate took control at the front, but it was Quinn Simmons who appeared to have the best legs and endurance in the Haute-Savoie, even if the peloton was making its own intention well known a little over two minutes behind them.
Visma-Lease a Bike had seized control of the bunch in the last 60 km, apparently trying once again to wear away at Pogačar's reserves in order to blunt his inevitable acceleration. However, Vingegaard's quest to "fight to the end" was shut down prematurely when he crashed hard about 10 km from the start of the final climb. His body language screamed that he'd broken his collarbone, or done some race-ending damage to his shoulder, and sure enough, the Dane's last moments of the 2026 Tour de France were spent clambering gingerly into a medical van destined for the nearest hospital.
For a few kilometres, it looked good for the breakaway now three minutes up the road, but with Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe in particular eager to protect minor GC placings, the gap began to fall fast. Simmons set off alone 10 km from the line, but once Pogačar himself hit the front of the bunch a couple of kilometres later, it was only a matter of time.
Within 500 metres, only Isaac Del Toro and Remco Evenepoel were left on his wheel, and the latter could not be shaken. Pogačar worked for Del Toro until the flamme rouge where the young rider made his first of two accelerations, but Evenepoel was on a very good day.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89790 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89790 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
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