Tour de France 2022: stage 15 to Carcassonne – live!

Two Covid withdrawals that we know of so far, and both Simon Clarke and Magnus Cort won stages earlier in Le Tour.

Jeremy Whittle saw Michael Matthews ride to victory on an airfield on Saturday.

Matthews, who until his latest success had been the rider with the most top-three, top-five and top-10 finishes but had not won a stage on the Grand Tour since 2019, finally squashed his reputation as the peloton’s nearly man with a solo win at the Mende aerodrome, high in the Lozère.

With temperatures hitting the mid-30s the team cars and roadside helpers could hardly keep up with the demands for cold drinks and ice. After an initial flurry of attacks led by the defending champion, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), died down, a breakaway of 23 riders including Matthews, Bettiol and Pinot built a lead of more than 10 minutes.

William Fotheringham wrote in this week’s Observer of the dominance of Jumbo-Visma team.

Vingegaard’s victory was also a rare example of a decisive Tour stage where team tactics worked to perfection, admittedly helped by Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates being reduced in numbers by the Covid-19 virus. However, it had already been obvious on several occasions in the first week that the team might not be up to the task ahead of them.

When Wout van Aert attacked to win the Calais stage, UAE were unable to put numbers around Pogacar. The same thing happened on the cobbled road to Arenberg the next day, when the young Slovenian’s strength disguised their weakness. Similarly, when Van Aert made his fruitless long-range attack en route to Longwy the next morning, two of Pogacar’s men were unable to hold the rampaging peloton midway through the stage.

It has been a long old wait for the sprinters on Le Tour, who have spent the last couple of weeks going up hill and down dale in the Alps, and being hauled across puncheur stages like that on Saturday, when Michael Matthews, ostensibly a sprinter, showed his mettle by taking down a breakaway of climbers. A breakaway today is a possibility, depending on the legs left in the teams, but the plan will be to get the shredded remains of the sprint teams in place to deliver a finish. And then Wout van Aert, of the dominant Jumbo-Visma team, will probably win as Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar stay tight to each other back in the pack.

That, though, would suggest Le Tour was anything like predictable, and this year’s has been full of surprises. Per William Fotheringham ahead of the race.

On paper, today – finally – favours the sprint teams, but they will face a fierce battle to control things, with a lengthy third category climb 50km from the finish. The sprinters haven’t had a clear-cut sprint day since stage four, so won’t want to miss this one: let’s hope enough teammates have survived the Alps to keep it together.