July 20, 2025 • 6 mins
Stage 15 Muret-Carcassonne 169.3km (Hilly)
Stage 15 of the Tour de France 2025 delivered a masterclass in breakaway brilliance and tactical misfires. On a lumpy 169 km route through southern France, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) launched a daring solo attack with 40 km to go, holding off all chasers to claim his first Tour stage win—and complete his set of victories across all three Grand Tours.
Behind him, the peloton fractured early due to a crash, GC teams scrambled to regroup, and Julian Alaphilippe mistakenly celebrated third place as a win. With the GC battle neutralized and the sprinters dropped, it was a day for the opportunists—and Wellens seized it with style.
Stage 15 of the Tour de France 2025 delivered a masterclass in breakaway brilliance and tactical misfires. On a lumpy 169 km route through southern France, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) launched a daring solo attack with 40 km to go, holding off all chasers to claim his first Tour stage win—and complete his set of victories across all three Grand Tours.
Behind him, the peloton fractured early due to a crash, GC teams scrambled to regroup, and Julian Alaphilippe mistakenly celebrated third place as a win. With the GC battle neutralized and the sprinters dropped, it was a day for the opportunists—and Wellens seized it with style.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of course, Stage fifteen was as chaotic as the rest
of the race. Despite my feeling that it might not
be as bad because everyone might be a bit tired
from yesterday, that was absolutely not the case. My name
is Dave. This is the Ryde and Thrive podcast with
today at the tour. So the winner was Tim Wellens,
(00:23):
second was Victor Camperart's and third was Julian Ala Phelipe. However,
that wasn't the whole story. So the race from the
start was carnage. There was a crash early on which
split the peloton in two and it involved at Alap Philippe.
He got a dissiccated shoulders, shoulder got put back in
(00:44):
and he made it back on. Pagatcha was in the
front half of the peloton and he put word out
to slow everything down, just like them that they did
for him the other day when he had a crash.
So it wasn't soon after that that the peloton got
all got back together again. However, there was then a
break with some big names. In that break, there were
(01:05):
the likes of Wout van Art, Quinn Simmons, Julian Ala Philippe,
Matthew Vanderpol, Victor camper Art's and of course at tim
Wallins of UAE. Now they all kept things rolling along
with the GC riders seemingly intense more happy to let
them go and you know, maybe fight out a stage
(01:25):
win out between that large group of riders, about thirty
five plus riders. It was with forty kilometers to go
that Wellons decided to attack on his own. Now, there
was a little bit of chatter afterwards from Quinn Simmons
and he put another monstrous effort in up in the breakaway.
A breakaway doesn't seem to get away without him at
(01:46):
the moment. However, he did mention that he thought that
Wellons got a little bit of a tow off the
motorbike that was there filming the race at the front,
so you know, you get a little bit of a
a draft off the motorbike, and he think that he
thought that that was enough for him to get away
on a solo effort. He said that they know it happens,
(02:08):
and it's a case of whoever's in a position to
get the benefit of the time. Quinn Simmons is normally
quite an upbeat chapp and I thought it was quite
negative to him to say this opens up a whole
can of worms, and I'm sure this will be looked
at as well. But yeah, it was then that that
Wellens got away and he basically kept the gap. There
(02:29):
was no immediate response. They were a little bit disorganized.
Victor camp and Arts then tried to put on a
chase himself, but he just couldn't narrow the gap. So
Wellens came over first place for UE, and Victor camp
and Arts came in second for Visma. Juliet Alan Philippe
came in third place for Tudor pro Cycling, which was
(02:50):
a great effort considering that he'd put his shoulder out. However,
he did celebrate like he'd got the win. His arms
went up, and because the other two were a couple
of minutes ahead, they were kind of out of sight.
And I saw an interview with the head of Tudor
pro Cycling and he confirmed that they they'd lost radio contact.
(03:13):
The radio was broken because of the crash, so they
had no way of telling him that this wasn't the
head of the race. So he unfortunately, he did think
he was he was winning and he was only to
come in third. Now, these things do happen, but yeah,
it was a bit of a I don't know, I
don't like to see that and I don't certainly don't
(03:35):
like people laughing at him. But so for Wellens, it
was his first win at the tour. However, he has
one at the Giro and the Welta, the Tour of
Italy and the Welta the Tour of Spain, so they're
the other Grand Tours. So he's actually won a stage
an hour at each of the Grand Tours, which is
a great effort for him. And he's actually one of
(03:56):
the one of the elder statesmen at the ripe old
age of thirty four, would you believe. So Pagatcha holds
on to yellow with four minutes thirteen ahead of vinger
Guard and there's no other change in the podium places
going into the rest day. The rest day tomorrow, wh
(04:18):
would be a chance for the riders to get their
breath back before they head to the mountains again. And
on Tuesday, got to get my dates right. Tuesday, the
twenty second they are actually going up Mont von two,
which is a monster of a mountains, So it's Montpellier
(04:39):
to Mont von two. That's the next stage, stage sixteen,
and that is on Tuesday, now it's a mountain finish,
so it's a fairly flat stage for the majority of
the race. However, the stage, sorry, however that it does
then go on to Mont Von two at the end,
so the peloton may stay together, and being a bit
(05:01):
cautious here on what I say, the peloton may stay together.
And then of course there's going to be a free
for all onto month on two, just to see who
can get a win up there. With it being a
summit finish, that would be a it's a really up
a stage that's up for grabs for somebody to really
make a name for themselves or Pergatcha might fancy it himself.
(05:24):
Like again, like I say, he doesn't need to go
for the stage win, but if he's chasing down one
of the other GC contenders, he might do. So we'll
look out for that on Tuesday. Until then, watch out
for Until then, watch out for rest day reflections. I'll
be putting something out tomorrow just to keep us going
(05:46):
through through the rest day, and I'll be back with
a commentary on the Tuesday evening of a round up
four whatever happened off from Mompontu. Okay, folks, thanks for listening.
Short one today Bye for now.
Of course, Stage fifteen was as chaotic as the rest
of the race. Despite my feeling that it might not
be as bad because everyone might be a bit tired
from yesterday, that was absolutely not the case. My name
is Dave. This is the Ryde and Thrive podcast with
today at the tour. So the winner was Tim Wellens,
(00:23):
second was Victor Camperart's and third was Julian Ala Phelipe. However,
that wasn't the whole story. So the race from the
start was carnage. There was a crash early on which
split the peloton in two and it involved at Alap Philippe.
He got a dissiccated shoulders, shoulder got put back in
(00:44):
and he made it back on. Pagatcha was in the
front half of the peloton and he put word out
to slow everything down, just like them that they did
for him the other day when he had a crash.
So it wasn't soon after that that the peloton got
all got back together again. However, there was then a
break with some big names. In that break, there were
(01:05):
the likes of Wout van Art, Quinn Simmons, Julian Ala Philippe,
Matthew Vanderpol, Victor camper Art's and of course at tim
Wallins of UAE. Now they all kept things rolling along
with the GC riders seemingly intense more happy to let
them go and you know, maybe fight out a stage
(01:25):
win out between that large group of riders, about thirty
five plus riders. It was with forty kilometers to go
that Wellons decided to attack on his own. Now, there
was a little bit of chatter afterwards from Quinn Simmons
and he put another monstrous effort in up in the breakaway.
A breakaway doesn't seem to get away without him at
(01:46):
the moment. However, he did mention that he thought that
Wellons got a little bit of a tow off the
motorbike that was there filming the race at the front,
so you know, you get a little bit of a
a draft off the motorbike, and he think that he
thought that that was enough for him to get away
on a solo effort. He said that they know it happens,
(02:08):
and it's a case of whoever's in a position to
get the benefit of the time. Quinn Simmons is normally
quite an upbeat chapp and I thought it was quite
negative to him to say this opens up a whole
can of worms, and I'm sure this will be looked
at as well. But yeah, it was then that that
Wellens got away and he basically kept the gap. There
(02:29):
was no immediate response. They were a little bit disorganized.
Victor camp and Arts then tried to put on a
chase himself, but he just couldn't narrow the gap. So
Wellens came over first place for UE, and Victor camp
and Arts came in second for Visma. Juliet Alan Philippe
came in third place for Tudor pro Cycling, which was
(02:50):
a great effort considering that he'd put his shoulder out. However,
he did celebrate like he'd got the win. His arms
went up, and because the other two were a couple
of minutes ahead, they were kind of out of sight.
And I saw an interview with the head of Tudor
pro Cycling and he confirmed that they they'd lost radio contact.
(03:13):
The radio was broken because of the crash, so they
had no way of telling him that this wasn't the
head of the race. So he unfortunately, he did think
he was he was winning and he was only to
come in third. Now, these things do happen, but yeah,
it was a bit of a I don't know, I
don't like to see that and I don't certainly don't
(03:35):
like people laughing at him. But so for Wellens, it
was his first win at the tour. However, he has
one at the Giro and the Welta, the Tour of
Italy and the Welta the Tour of Spain, so they're
the other Grand Tours. So he's actually won a stage
an hour at each of the Grand Tours, which is
a great effort for him. And he's actually one of
(03:56):
the one of the elder statesmen at the ripe old
age of thirty four, would you believe. So Pagatcha holds
on to yellow with four minutes thirteen ahead of vinger
Guard and there's no other change in the podium places
going into the rest day. The rest day tomorrow, wh
(04:18):
would be a chance for the riders to get their
breath back before they head to the mountains again. And
on Tuesday, got to get my dates right. Tuesday, the
twenty second they are actually going up Mont von two,
which is a monster of a mountains, So it's Montpellier
(04:39):
to Mont von two. That's the next stage, stage sixteen,
and that is on Tuesday, now it's a mountain finish,
so it's a fairly flat stage for the majority of
the race. However, the stage, sorry, however that it does
then go on to Mont Von two at the end,
so the peloton may stay together, and being a bit
(05:01):
cautious here on what I say, the peloton may stay together.
And then of course there's going to be a free
for all onto month on two, just to see who
can get a win up there. With it being a
summit finish, that would be a it's a really up
a stage that's up for grabs for somebody to really
make a name for themselves or Pergatcha might fancy it himself.
(05:24):
Like again, like I say, he doesn't need to go
for the stage win, but if he's chasing down one
of the other GC contenders, he might do. So we'll
look out for that on Tuesday. Until then, watch out
for Until then, watch out for rest day reflections. I'll
be putting something out tomorrow just to keep us going
(05:46):
through through the rest day, and I'll be back with
a commentary on the Tuesday evening of a round up
four whatever happened off from Mompontu. Okay, folks, thanks for listening.
Short one today Bye for now.
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