Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow jersey wasn’t bothered on Sunday’s last stage before the Tour de France’s final rest day, but he’ll be concerned with the loss of two key lieutenants. Primoz Roglič and Steven Kruijswijk both left the 109th edition with crash injuries. In Carcassonne, sprinter Jasper Philipsen took his first career stage victory. Hugo Houle was top Canadian in 14th.
You can watch the 2022 Tour de France at FloBikes.
The Course
There were plenty of hillocks, knolls and prominences across Sunday’s 202-km route from Rodez to Carcassonne, but only two categorized climbs. The last one, Cat. 3 Côte des Cammazes, peaked with 45 km to ride. The run-in to the finish was flat. Another scorching day awaited the riders.
A hilly route, temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, a fast descent to the line and a stunning setting for the finish – Carcassonne, where we won last year.
Stage 15 of the #TDF2022 is about to start! pic.twitter.com/T85czHfm5F
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) July 17, 2022
First thing this morning, the sad news came from Jumbo-Visma. Primoz Roglič did not start the stage, the second consecutive year he came into the race a favourite, accumulated crash injuries and did not finish. Nothing to do now but win another Vuelta a España.
🇫🇷 #TDF2022
Primoz about his #DNS in stage 15 @LeTour
“I’m proud of my contribution to the current standings and I trust that the team will realise our yellow and green ambitions. Thanks to everybody for your great support.” pic.twitter.com/aw0juGFWwO
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) July 17, 2022
Two stage winners didn’t start either, both testing positive for COVID-19: Simon Clarke and Magnus Cort.
The greeen jersey Wout Van Aert blasted away with two others soon after the gun, but got called back by Jumbo-Visma after 45 km.
Trek-Segafredo’s Toms Skujiņš went deep in the bidon delivery role.
When you have a flight with Ryanair. pic.twitter.com/lFrjrFTV89
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) July 17, 2022
Oh, it got scenic, all right.
📸 The annual Tour de France sunflower photo 🌻
📸 La photo annuelle des tournesols du Tour de France 🌻#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/doDp89wTMg
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 17, 2022
With 65 km to go Kruijswijk crashed and abandoned. Soon after, Vingegaard and teammate Tiesj Benoot went down as well, but got up and carried on.
🇫🇷 #TDF2022 @s_kruijswijk was involved in a crash in…
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