Tour de France 2023 Stage 15 LIVE: Can a summit finish on Mont Blanc separate Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar?

CHAPEAU ADRIEN PETIT

What a ride for Adrien Petit to even finish yesterday, after taking a vicious tumble in the crash that brought about the end of several riders' tours. The Frenchman finished 158th and last on the stage, in the company of Cees Bol (Astana) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious).

DEPART FICTIF

And the neutralised start is underway, with the four jerseys present at the front for the time being. This is the first time Les Gets has been a departure town in the Tour de France - although it's seen plenty of action between stages and a few finishes.

Quite a long neutral today, with over 11km of relaxed rollout before the brutality begins.

PREDICTIONS CORNER

Here's who the Eurosport pundits are going for today.

Jacky Durand - Valentin Madouas
Manon Lloyd - Tadej Pogacar
Alberto Contador - Matteo Jorgensen
Brian Holm - Tadej Pogacar
Jens Voigt - Tom Pidcock

Of those, I'm most persuaded by Jorgensen, but think this could well be Giulio Ciccone's day. I wouldn't be surprised to see Michael Woods going for number two as well. We're about to get underway in Les Gets.

Perfect weather conditions for a bike race at the start, with temperatures in the low twenties, rather than the towering thirties. That will only serve to encourage aggressive racing from the outset. As if these riders need any incentive...

Actually, five. Classified climbs at least, with a couple of significant lumps before the race reaches the first of them, for a (very) grand total of 4500m of ascent, across the 179km course.

Today’s race takes place, to my mind, in the most captivating corner of France, with all roads leading to Mont Blanc, a mythical, magical mountain about which I’ll talk more later.

It’s set up for a summit showdown, but with the uphill start we can just as confidently predict a pistols at dawn style start, with every farmer and his mum wanting to get into the breakaway. With so many riders now well out of the GC reckoning, there aren’t many that wouldn’t be allowed the freedom to do so, though that just means their only constraint will be each other’s competition.

With a keen eye clearly on the polka dot jersey we can expect Giulio Ciccone to be front and centre out of Les Gets. He’d like a stage win as well, though, so whether he’s there at the end, only the next five hours will tell.

What matters most, of course, is the maillot jaune. Tadej Pogacar was only prevented from taking more time out of the leader by a naughty photomoto - which won’t be in the race today, FYI - but should have his confidence boosted by Jonas Vingegaard’s inability to break him on his bread and butter terrain. Who’s legs are feeling liveliest today, though? The road to the rest day will decide.