Astana’s Fuglsang moves into 9th overall at Tour de France Stage 15
Simon Yates wonthe stage, Julian Alaphilippe is still leading the race. Jakob Fuglsang is nowninth overall, after finishing just behind most of the GC contenders.
«Itwas a tough day for everyone and I gave my all during the stage and especiallyin the final. However, I missed a bit to stay with the best riders up there infront. Yeah, I still miss something more to be in fight for the Top-3. Anyway,there is one more week in this Tour de France and some more hard mountainstages. I hope to recover as well as possible to fight back in the generalclassification,» said Jakob Fuglsang.
«Itwas a super intense and hard day with many hard climbs including the final one.But as tomorrow we will have a rest day, today I was ready to fight in with mybest. After yesterday tough stage I was able to recover well, so from beginningI was up there in front trying to go in a breakaway. Finally, we’ve managed toescape with Pello and Omar in a big group. But, the peloton never gave us toomuch space since there was Nairo Quintana in our group and he is still acontender in the general classification. Maybe with a bigger gap I could havemore chances in the final, but anyway a stronger climber won today. Yeah, itwas a hard day, but I did it on a maximum,» said Alexey Lutsenko.
Another day in the Pyrenees, as stage 15 went from Limoux tothe summit finish on Foix (1st category). After a hard start of the stage, abig breakaway was created including Kazakh champion Alexey Lutsenko, PelloBilbao and Omar Fraile. After two climbs, Alexey Lutsenko remained in thebreakaway until Simon Yates attacked to take a solo stage victory. Meanwhile,Bilbao and Fraile dropped back to the reduced peloton including Jakob Fuglsang,who launched a good attack together with Mikel Landa but later was caught backby the other GC contenders. On the final climb of the day, Fuglsang had to letsome of the main favorites go, finishing fourteenth. Julian Alaphilippe isstill leading the race, Jakob Fuglsang is now ninth (+5’27»).
Tomorrow is the second rest day of the Tour de France, beforethe riders will start on stage 16, a relatively flat day with start and finishin Nimes.