The 15th stage of this Tour de France offered a perfect playground for backpackers and a nice breakaway between Muret and Carcassonne. At the cost of a huge battle throughout the day, it is the Belgian champion Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) which won this stage by reiterating its exploit last June on the Belgian championships by attacking alone more than 40 kilometers from the finish line. The training runner UAE Team Emirates-XRG has ahead of his friend and compatriot Victor Campenaerts (Team Visma | Lease A Bike) and French Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team). The Belgian of the Training Visma | Lease a Bike expressed himself after his beautiful second place at the microphone of various media.
“A second place is never what we are running for …”
“I feel very well on this tower, and today we also said that we wanted to play the stage”begins the Belgian. “It was a good situation with Wout and I in the breakaway. With Tim (Wellens), we have a good relationship outside the bicycle, but in the race, it is clearly the guy that you do not want to have in the breakaway. He is smart, cunning, he knows how to do it. He was not allowed to take relays, so he was on the wheels, but he was very strong. Perfect at the culmination of the course. 'Don't be disappointed, we did what we could.' And also, when he returned with a group, he said to me: 'Campi, goes to look for this second place.' I was not sure, there were a lot of guys who came back, so it was complicated to win this sprint.concludes Victor Campenaerts.
