Astana's Magnus Cort Nielsen crosses the finish line to win stage 15 of the Tour de France in Carcassonne on Sunday.
Photo: AP
Carcassonne: Danish rider Magnus Cort Nielsen claimed a blackboard victory on the Tour de France when he prevailed in a three-man sprint at the end of a long breakaway in the 15th stage on Sunday.
The Astana rider was the overwhelming favourite as a sprint specialist in the finale and he duly delivered, comfortably beating Spain's Ion Izagirre (Bahrain–Merida) and Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), who were second and third, respectively.
It was Cort Nielsen's third grand tour win after he won two stages in the Vuelta a Espana in 2016, and Astana's second in this year's Tour after Omar Fraile won Saturday's 14th stage.
Briton Geraint Thomas retained the overall lead after a lumpy 181.5-kilometre stage from Millau through the vineyards of Minervois, Corbieres and Cabardes in the south of France.
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He leads Sky teammate and defending champion Chris Froome by 1:39 and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) by 1:50 ahead of Monday's rest day before the race heads to the Pyrenees.
In a blow to Team Sky, however, their Italian rider Gianni Moscon was kicked out of the Tour for hitting a Fortuneo-Samsic rider in the opening minutes of the stage.
Moscon was suspended by Sky for six weeks for a racist slur against a French rider last year.
Sky riders have been targeted by boos and jeers on the Tour this year and defending champion Chris Froome was slapped on the shoulder by a fan during a stage this week.
A 29-man breakaway took shape early on, and after they had built an advantage of more than 10 minutes to make sure the win would be decided between them, the fireworks started.
Tour debutants Fabien Grellier (Direct Énergie) and Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), the son of Jean-Francois, third overall in the 1987 race, attacked with 70 kilometres left.
But Poland's Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), who has three Tour stage wins to his name, jumped away from the group and chased the duo down, whizzing past them to reach the top of the Pic de Nore, a 12.3-kilometre climb at an average gradient of 6.3 per cent, in first position.
He had a 30-second lead, but with a flat, crosswind-exposed stretch leading to the line, his chances were slim and he was caught by a group of seven chasers.
France's Lilian Calmejane (Direct Énergie), in his home region, had no teammate in the group unlike Cort Nielsen, Mollema and Izagirre. He was isolated when things heated up and had to concede defeat, breaking down in tears after crossing the line in seventh place, 34 seconds off the pace.
The peloton crossed the line 13:11 behind with no incident being reported.
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