- Primoz Roglic retains yellow jersey on dramatic afternoon
- Reigning champion cracks in climb to finish
Egan Bernal’s defence of his Tour de France title wilted and then collapsed definitively in the September heat, as Primoz Roglic tightened his grip on the leader’s yellow jersey and fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar took his second stage win to the summit of the Grand Colombier in the French Jura.
In a brutal finale to stage 15 the Ineos Grenadiers leader, unlike his sponsor’s new all-terrain vehicle, faltered on the steepest gradients, 13 kilometres from the finish, as Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team set an infernal pace on the 17km climb. By the time Bernal reached the finish line he was almost seven and a half minutes behind Pogacar and had tumbled down the overall standings.
