Ilan Van Wilder in the breakaway until the final climb, Tim Merlier abandons the race.
Stage 15 of the Tour de France kicked off with Valentin Paret-Peintre in the polka dot jersey, and the 25-year-old honored it by going on the attack on the day’s first climb - Côte des Rousses - where he scored more points that cemented his position in the classification.
A few minutes later, a sizable group featuring Ilan Van Wilder went away and built a three-minute maximum gap on the peloton. While they traded pulls there with the hope of fighting for victory on the Plateau de Solaison, a couple of kilometers behind, Tim Merlier - the best sprinter of this edition, with three victories - abandoned the race, bringing his third Grande Boucle participation to a conclusion with one week left.
Van Wilder remained ahead of the bunch until the early slopes of that demanding 11.3km ascent, where a reduced yellow jersey group caught him. Ilan continued to soldier on hoping to limit the losses, but a crash just a few kilometers from the top cost him time. Despite this, the Belgian retained his place in the general classification going into the race’s final rest day. From there, the race will resume with an individual time trial where he’ll have the chance to make up time in the general classification.
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