Tour de France: Gall loses valuable time due to a defect

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July 16, 2023
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After 15 of 21 stages, the Danish titleholder Vingegaard remains ten seconds ahead of the Slovenian Pogacar. It continues on Tuesday in Passy with the only individual time trial. The 22 kilometers should accommodate Gall, who is actually not competitive in this discipline, due to the topography with two climbs. The last six kilometers lead steeply uphill.

This was also the case at the end of the mountain trilogy in the Alps, but in the decisive phase around eight kilometers before the finish, Gall suffered the third damage of the day on his bike in a short intermediate descent. The necessary change to a replacement device made him the AG2R driver stopped and finally finished two minutes behind Pogacar and Vingegaard. In the overall classification, he had to let David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin pass. However, he is only 32 and 21 seconds behind the two Frenchmen.

Crime at Tour de France continues

The thriller in the Tour de Frane between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar continues. The yellow jersey belongs to Vingegaard, victory in stage 15 went to Dutchman Wout Poels. Felix Gall, on the other hand, was unlucky with a defect in the final on the last mountain stage of the second week and fell out of the top ten.

“Extremely Frustrating Day”

After three wheel changes, Gall spoke of an “extremely frustrating day”, and it was particularly bitter in the decisive phase. “Of course I then lost touch with the group and lost all my momentum, and inevitably I was on my own in the final. Then you rip a hole straight away. I’m sure I had the knuckles today that I could have secured the top ten.” He will use the rest day to process the annoyance and recover well.

Spectators caused mass fall

After about 50 kilometers of the stage, a careless spectator caused a mass fall, which brought down several of Vingegaard’s helpers in the jumbo team. The American Sepp Kuss touched the fan’s arm, which was probably outstretched for a cell phone photo, and tore about 20 other drivers to the ground. Among others, the jumbo drivers Nathan van Hooydonck and Dylan van Baarle landed on the asphalt. Michael Gogl (Alpecin), who was seriously injured in a fall last year, was also involved.

???? Another big fall. After some time, all affected drivers can continue driving for the time being.
???? Please pay attention to the drivers. Watch the race, not your phone. We all want the Tour de France to be and remain a big celebration. #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/y2M3B3sgLn
— Tour de France – DE (@letour_de) July 16, 2023

Unlike the day before with seven tasks and Daniel Martinez (Ineos) not showing up because of the mass crash on Saturday, there were no injury-related absences this time. Another incident without serious consequences involved 35 kilometers from the finish Krists Neilands. The Latvian fell in a top quartet with Poels, van Aert and the Spaniard Marc Soler in a confusing downhill passage when a drinking bottle from a companion motorcycle failed to be accepted.

In the large breakaway group, Marco Haller had also briefly put himself in the limelight. The Carinthian from the Bora team tried a solo attack on the longest climb of the day, but the appearance of the sprinting classic specialist didn’t last long.

Poels celebrates first tour stage win

On the other hand, Poels’ attack on the steep final climb was crowned with success. The 35-year-old Dutchman from the Bahrain racing team finally celebrated his first tour stage win in a superior manner more than two minutes ahead of Van Aert.

AP/Daniel Cole Wout Poels dedicated the victory to his teammate Gino Mäder, who died in an accident at the Tour de Suisse

“I always dreamed of winning a stage. It’s incredible and I’m super happy with it. It was only a kilometer before that that I believed that Wout van Aert wasn’t just anyone,” said Poels, who dedicated the victory to his Swiss team-mate Gino Mäder, who died in an accident at the Tour de Suisse.

In the fight for overall victory, Vingegaard only had to fend off an attack from Pogacar in the last kilometer, six minutes behind. “I tried, but I could see that Jonas was feeling super good, so I didn’t waste too much energy. There are still three crucial days to come, but I’m sure it will be very, very close,” said the Slovenian. The last time there was a gap of ten seconds or less between the leading duo before the last week of the tour was in 2008.

Photographer apologizes to Pogacar

A motorcycle photographer, meanwhile, apologized after his braking maneuver against Pogacar on Saturday. “I will not defend the untenable. We shouldn’t be in this situation. I should have asked my biker to distance me faster and earlier,” said Bernard Papon, a contributor to French sports newspaper L’Equipe.

On the 14th stage of the Col de Joux Plane, Pogacar attacked Vingegaard a good 500 meters before the pass, but had to brake a few meters later because two motorcycles blocked the road. Papon, who was on one of the bikes, explained the incident to the crowds at the top of the pass. “When I saw Tadej accelerating, I immediately said so to my driver. He replied that he couldn’t leave,” said the photographer.

The tour organization ASO suspended both motorcycle crews for the Sunday stage and fined them 500 Swiss francs (around 515 euros). Pogacar downplayed the incident at the finish but admitted he wasted energy unnecessarily. His manager Joxean Matxin said: “Of course it can happen but the UCI rules are clear. Driving two meters away is unacceptable.”

110. Tour de France, 15. Stage

Les Gets les Portes du Soleil – Saint-Gervais (180 km): 1. Wout Poels NED 4:40:45 2. Wout van Aert BEL + 2:08 3. Mathieu Burgaudeau FRA 3:00 4. Lawson Craddock USA 3: 10 5. Mikel Landa ESP 3:14 6. Thibaut Pinot FRA -“- 7. Guillaume Martin FRA 3:32 8. Mattias Skjelmose DEN 3:43 9. Simon Gugliemi FRA 3:59 10. Warren Barguil FRA 4:20 16 . Tadej Pogacar SLO 6:04 17. Jonas Vingegaard DEN -“- 26.

Felix Gall

AUT