20th July – Stage 15: Muret – Carcassonne
A day that looked destined to be one for the attackers, today saw an incredibly intense battle to make the breakaway. An early crash within the peloton, which saw Pavel Bittner require a bike change, caused some splits with Oscar Onley and several other GC contenders caught behind while a group of around 35 riders were up the road.
There the attacks continued with Tobias Lund Andresen making it into a promising group of around 12 riders, but those who had missed the move kept the pace high. That meant going onto the first climb of the day, the strong climbers pushed on and the attacks flew from the peloton; and things became uncontrolled for a short while. Frank van den Broek and Warren Barguil bridged to Lund Andresen’s chase group. However, it was tactical and there were lots of people looking around.
With around 65 kilometres to go, Barguil followed a counter-attack and bridged to the head of the race – just as they started the steepest climb of the day. Barguil rode at his own pace and over the top came back to the leaders, but just as he did so Wellens attacked; with what would be his stage winning move. Barguil’s group cooperated but not 100 percent, and in the very deep finale they were caught by those they left behind earlier, with Barguil ultimately taking 17th place on the day.
Barguil said: “It was a good day for the break and we wanted to in there. It was a really chaotic start but we ended up in the move with three of us. It was full-gas racing all-day and I felt like I had good legs. I made a bridge to leading group before steep climb. The attacks started again just as I got there, and when Wellens went I was on the limit and couldn’t follow. It was a strong chase group, but we didn’t really work fully together which was a shame and we got caught by those behind us in the finale. Behind the guys looked after Oscar and he made it through the day; we’re looking forward to the final week of racing.”
