Geraint Thomas leads by one minute and 39 seconds from Chris Froome
Sunday 22 July 2018 18:07, UK
Magnus Cort Nielsen of Denmark sprinted away from two other challengers to win Stage 15 of the Tour de France on Sunday.
The Astana rider claimed his first career win at the Tour after staying ahead of Ion Izagirre and Bauke Mollema in a sprint over the final 200 meters of the hilly 181.5-kilometer (112.7-mile) leg from Millau that finished in a long descent to Carcassonne.
The three riders were the last of a breakaway group of 29 cyclists.
The peloton crossed the line some 13 minutes later, with Team Sky's Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome present along with Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin to ensure there was no change at the top of the general classification ahead of Monday's rest day.
Thomas continues to lead Froome by one minute and 39 seconds, with Dumoulin a further 11 seconds back.
"We were always in control," Thomas said. "We were always in the right place, and it's a good day to get done."
World champion Peter Sagan was one of 29 riders to get into the day's break, and he took third place in the day's intermediate sprint to ensure he now simply needs to reach Paris to win the points classification for a sixth time - mathematically unable to be caught with a full week of the Tour to spare.
The riders will have their second rest day of the race on Monday. That pause precedes three mountain stages in the Pyrenees, followed by the individual time trial on the penultimate day of the race.
"There are three big, big days left, and then the time trial, so (I) just take each day as it comes and we will see what happens," Thomas said.
The racing returns on Tuesday with Stage 16, a 218-kilometer mountain trek from Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon.
