Tour de France Stage 15 Preview: Will the True GC Contenders Please Stand Up

Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison: 183.9km/3950m 

Stage 15 serves up one final mountain exam before the Tour de France‘s last rest day, and it could be where the race’s true GC contenders rise to the top.

With a Tour rest day waiting on the other side, the pack will have little reason to hold back.

The day’s main obstacle is the HC climb to Plateau de Solaison. Rising 11.3km at 9.1 percent, it’s the kind of Tour stage ideal for the strongest to stampede away from everyone.

This summit proved decisive in deciding the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes last month when Isaac del Toro soloed the final 9km to win the stage and clinch the overall.

Del Toro and Tadej Pogačar reconned the stage this spring, so the UAE rabble will be ready to turn the screws.

By the summit, the Tour may not be won, but the list of riders capable of winning it will almost certainly be trimmed.

Pogačar is in the driver’s seat, so the real battle is heating up for who finishes behind him in which order on the Tour podium. Jonas Vingegaard will start looking behind him rather than ahead of the road to try to at least defend second.

A breakaway might stand a chance, but with a climb this hard, someone will need diamonds in their legs to fend off the stampeding GC favorites in the final 30-minute effort.