Wout Poels ends Tour de France drought with Mont Blanc victory while Jonas Vingegaard stays ahead

Wout Poels won his first grand tour stage on a dramatic day that was highlighted by a crash caused by a spectator.

Yellow jersey leader Jonas Vingegaard stayed 10 seconds in front of Tadej Pogacar as they finished the 197km stage 15 across the slopes of Mont Blanc together, six minutes behind Dutch rider Poels, 35.

The peloton had been closely following a series of breakaway attempts early on but, when a young spectator taking a selfie in the road was hit by Vingegaard’s team-mate Sepp Kuss 50km in, around a dozen riders went down, slowing the main group and allowing almost 40 riders to get away. Kuss’ elbow had to be heavily bandaged.

Poels, riding his 10th Tour having been part of four winning teams with Team Sky and the Ineos Grenadiers, delivered a second stage win of this race for the Bahrain-Victorious team and dedicated it to Gino Mader, his team-mate who died after a crash at the Tour de Suisse last month.

‘I always dreamed to win a stage in the Tour and especially with what has happened in the team in the last few weeks with Gino… it’s all of the emotions,’ said Poels.

Wout Poels won his first grand tour stage across Mont Blanc at the Tour de France

A spectator caused a serious crash that involved a host of riders during stage 15 on Sunday

‘I’m super happy. I only started to believe in the last kilometre and I had to just keep fighting.’

Monday is the final rest day, before Tuesday’s 22.4km time trial from Passy to Combloux.