Simon Yates wins Tour stage 15 as Alaphilippe loses time: Daily News Digest
Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:
Simon Yates solos to the Tour de France stage 15 win from the break, Julian Alaphilippe loses time on the final climb, Italy shines in the Olympic test event. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.
Story of the Day: Simon Yates wins stage 15 of the Tour de France as Julian Alaphilippe shows first signs of struggling
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) stormed to victory on stage 15 of the Tour de France out of the breakaway. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Mikel Landa (Movistar) were the next two riders across the line, putting over a minute into race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step).
“I’m very proud of what I did today,” said Yates. “It was an extremely hard day from the start to the finish. I raced the way I like to, which is trying to be aggressive, and I managed to pull it off.”
In the GC battle, Alaphilippe showed his first signs of vulnerability of the entire race as his rivals fired off attacks (Ineos) on the final climb. Alaphilippe remains in yellow headed into the first rest day, but his gap to second-placed Geraint Thomas (Ineos) has dipped to 1:35. Although still further back on the overall leaderboard, Pinot and Landa were among the biggest winners in the GC battle, with Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) also picking up significant time on Alaphilippe.
For Yates, the stage win is already his second of this Tour after he nabbed the win on stage 12. The 26-year-old Briton has now won multiple stages at all three of cycling’s Grand Tours.
More to come…
Socially Speaking
It’s nice to know the Caleb Ewan is still able to have fun even when the Tour is way up in the mountains …
My team told me I had to be flying for this years @letourdefrance! So here’s a picture of me doing that???? #dadjokes pic.twitter.com/zNqYTlIG5i
— Caleb Ewan (@CalebEwan) July 20, 2019
… and also that Wout van Aert is still helping his team out even as he recovers from a bad crash.
When you have no tv coverage in the teamcar and instead get updates from the hospital bed, then you know you have a real teamplayer in the house.
Thanks @WoutvanAert pic.twitter.com/hmef6IAE4X— grischa niermann (@grischaniermann) July 20, 2019
And then there was this back-and-forth from George Bennett and Geraint Thomas.
Ah I think they were booing you mate ????????
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) July 20, 2019
Race Radio
Ulissi wins Tokyo Olympics test event
Watch out for Diego Ulissi and the rest of the Italian team next summer in Tokyo.
Ulissi won the Olympic road race test event on Sunday in Japan at end of the lumpy journey from Musashinonomori Park to Fuji International Speedway. Compatriot Davide Formolo nabbed runner-up honors 17 seconds later, while the next best finisher, Nans Peters of France, came home 1:52 down.
Coming Up at the Tour
After some tough days in the Pyrenees, the Tour de France peloton will have a well-deserved day off on Monday’s second and final rest day before heading East towards the Alps.
Beauty of Cycling
The Col du Tourmalet delivered plenty of excitement at the Tour de France. It also made for some incredible imagery.
Don’t miss the fantastic photography in our gallery of stage 14.
In case you missed it …
Feature Image: Simon Yates wins stage 15 of the Tour de France. Photo: Nico Vereecken/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
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