Tour de France 2018: Magnus Cort Nielsen wins stage 15 – as it happened

And with that, I’m gone. It’s been an intriguing day, in which Magnus Cort Nielsen announced himself with a fine climb and a strong sprint, and in which the big GC battle was postponed for another 48 hours at least. Bye for now!

Geraint Thomas is re-presented with his yellow jersey. How long will he keep it for? Tomorrow is a rest day, which is followed by three mountain stages with one flat stage snuck among them, an individual time trial and a procession to Paris.

And Bauke Mollema:

He’s really fast, and it was a tactical final. We worked well together [to chase Majka], that went really well, then everybody was looking at each other, a bit of a game with 10km to go. I got away with Izagirre and Nielsen. He’s so fast, it was really difficult to drop him, and I think he deserved to win today.

Here’s Magnus Cort Nielsen:

It’s amazing. Something I’ve been dreaming of. This is my first year here on the Tour and I’m so happy to take my first victory. It really was perfect. They said this was the stage for me, and I should go out in the breakaway, and everything worked out perfectly.

Here’s our first-take report on today’s stage:

The GC favourites cross the line in a big group, positions again unchanged, 13min 10sec behind Cort.

Team Sky are all together at the front of the peloton, with Froome and Thomas riding side by side, chatting.

The peloton is 1.7km away from the finish line, and in no kind of hurry.

There was a nasty crash as the bulk of the breakaway came through to cross the line, with Damien Howson and Arthur Vichot among them. All recovered to cross the line.

And a top 10:

Today’s top five:

1. Magnus Cort Nielsen
2. Ion Izagirre
3. Bauke Mollema
4. Michael Valgren
5. Toms Skujins

The peloton is still over 10 minutes away from the finish line.

Michael Valgren comes in fourth and receives a hug of gratitude from his compatriot and team-mate.

That’s a first ever Tour de France stage win for the 25-year-old Dane!

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350m to go: Nielsen still in the lead, waiting for someone to challenge him.

1km to go: Magnus Cort Nielsen is absolutely bossing this. Can either of the other two outsprint him at the end?

2km to go: Into Carcassonne they go, and it’s one of three for victory: Izagirre, Mollema or Cort Nielsen.

5km to go: Ion Izagirre, Bauke Mollema and Magnus Cort Nielsen have gone ahead, assisted by some team-mates who contrived to let them go, and they seem set to fight for first.

8km to go: The leaders are being battered by a savage crosswind as they head towards Carcassonne. It has turned a little tactical at the front of the group, where positioning for the final sprint is more important than outright speed at this point.

10km to go: Majka has stuck with the seven riders who caught him, and one of the eight will win the stage.

13km to go: A helicopter shot shows a strange pattern of yellow lines on the old walls of Carcassonne. On ITV4 they’re puzzled about what they’re there for, but if you stand at precisely the right spot it all makes sense.

15km to go: Majka is going to be caught in the next minute or two.

16km to go: So, in short, there’s a terrific culture of trufficulture in Villeneuve-Minervois.

17km to go: The leaders have just gone through Villeneuve-Minervois, the last town before the finish. “Our village, with its rich history of viticulture, trufficulture, and forestry is turning resolutely towards the future,” apparently.

18km to go: This is what the final kilometre of today’s stage looks like. Will Majka still be at the front when he gets there?

23km to go: There is now a seven-man group chasing Majka, composed of Magnus Cort Nielsen and Michael Valgren Andersen of Astana, Bauke Mollema and Toms Skujiņš of Trek-Segafredo, Domenico Pozzovivo and Ion Izagirre of Merida and Lilian Calmejane of Direct Energie. They are just 15sec behind the leader.

26.5km to go: Majka is about to reach Cabrespine, famous mainly for a giant cave. “The background and the lighting effects make it a spectacle like no other,” apparently.

31km to go: Rafal Majka has a lead of 25sec over Mollema and Cort Nielsen, and they are screaming down the hill towards the finish line. Daniel Martin is just about to crest the Pic de Nore, exactly a minute ahead of the peloton.

40km to go: Bauke Mollema and Magnus Cort Nielsen have gone on their own to chase Majka down. They are 29sec behind the leader.

41km to go: It is barren and exposed towards the top of the Pic de Nore, with a howling wind to deal with. Majka has just completed the climb.

42km to go: Rafal Majka continues on his own, at the front of the race. There’s 2km of climbing to go, and the remainder of the race is mostly downhill. There’s an eight-man group, currently led by Domenico Pozzovivo, attempting to catch him, but they’re currently 41sec behind.

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44km to go: Dan Martin was 6min 54sec behind in the GC classification at the start of the day. Despite that disadvantage, Team Sky have decided not to let him get away from the peloton, and are accelerating to pull him back.

45.5km to go: Halfway up the Pic de Nore and Rafal Mijka has not just caught the leaders, he’s overtaken them.

46km to go: Here’s a photo of Michal Kwiatkowski, with telltale eagle livery:

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46km to go: Rafał Majka has set off at the front of the breakaway group, trying to catch the leaders. And Dan Martin has broken off the front of the peloton.

47km to go: “Who’s the Sky cyclist with red on helmet, shirt and what’s that for? Aggressive performance?” wonders Paul in Holland. That’s Michal Kwiatkowski, who has special bespoke kit as Polish champion. The clue is the eagle emblem, which you can see if you get close enough.

49km to go: Magnus Cort Nielsen, who has never won a Tour de France stage but certainly has the ability to do so, is at the front of the group now.

50km to go: So those in the breakaway who want to win the stage have to start working on catching the leading pair. They have thus upped the pace, and the 24 riders involved have stretched out along the road. Ion Izagirre is at the front of the group, and Sagan near the back. Whether that’s because he’s tactically biding his time, or because he’s not feeling at his best, remains to be seen, and probably will be seen in the next 10 minutes or so.

51km to go: With 10km of solid climbing to go before the leaders reach the peak of the Pic de Nore, the leading pair have a two-minute lead over the rest of the breakaway, and a 13min lead over the peloton.

54km to go: The sprint points in full:

1. Julien Bernard (20 points)
2. Fabien Grellier (17)
And then, a minute or so later:
3. Peter Sagan (15)
4. Greg Van Avermaet (13)
5. Pawel Poljanski (11)
6. Rafal Majka (10)
7. Daryl Impey (9)
8. Arthur Vichot (8)
9. Damian Howson (7)
10. Silvan Dillier (6)
11. Imanol Erviti (5)
12. Sonny Colbrelli (4)
13. Daniel Bennati (3)
14. Romain Sicard (2)
15. Magnus Cort Nielsen (1)

58km to go: And so to the Pic de Nore, which in profile looks something like this:

60km to go: Bernard is first to the line in Mazamet, with Grellier just behind.

61km to go: The intermediate sprint to Mazamet is just 1km away, with the front two, as they are now, 50sec ahead of the rest of the breakaway, and the peloton another 10 minutes back.

68km to go: Julien Bernard has almost caught up with Grellier. The rest of the breakaway is about 25sec behind.

69km to go: Grellier is still on his own, with a small lead over the rest of the breakaway. The peloton is increasingly distant, though, almost 10min behind the leader now.

74km to go: Fabien Grellier, a Direct Energie team-mate of the last person to do so, Lilian Calmejane, has set off alone at the front.

75km to go: The breakaway group has a lead of 9min 20sec over the peloton.

83km to go: As the riders head up another small but inconvenient bump in their path, the Cold de Caunan, Sagan has attempted to split the leading group. It looked on for a while, but he didn’t quite succeed.

86km to go: Maybe Sagan was just peckish, as Brassac also holds the feed zone.

88km to go: “Why do Sky do all the hard work at the front of the peloton?” wonders Jobin on Twitter. “Surely other teams like Dimension Data have an advantage by not doing any turns at the front?” I think the great benefit is that it gives the impression that Sky are totally in control, bending the race to their will.

92km to go: There has not been a lot of action of late, but Peter Sagan has just had the first whiff of sprint points fill his grateful nostrils, and has thus taken the lead of the leading group.

102km to go: And in a couple of minutes the gap disappeared entirely. Calmejane has been caught by the rest of the breakaway pack. At the other end of the group, Daryl Impey is one of three riders that have slipped a little behind the rest.

104km to go: Calmejane, about 45sec ahead of the rest of the breakaway, has a lengthy chat with the Direct Energie team car.

105km to go: Now they head up the Col de la Bassine, which is just a little bonus bump today. From here it’s largely downhill to the day’s sprint at Mazamet. The Col de la Bassine is at 903m above sea level, and Mazamet at 234m. 18.5km of tough climbing after Mazamet they crest the Pic de Nore, at 1,205m.

111km to go: Calmejaine heads into Lacaune les Bains. This is the second most exciting Sunday’s entertainment in Lacaune les Bains this month: they have a festival of charcuterie on next week, which starts with spit-roast hams at 8am and gets better from there.

116km to go: Calmejaine is first over the hill, over a minute ahead of anyone else.Serge Pauwels, Toms Skujins and Arthur Vichot hoover up the remaining points.