Simon Yates win stage as Thibaut Pinot attacks his Rivals

Alaphilippe retains yellow as he is attacked by his rivals on the steep slopes of Foix Prat d’Albis

Today's stage was really tough with 4,700 metres of climbing.  It was made even harder as attacks at the start were reeled back in, no one happy with the breakaway.

It wasn't until 50 kms into the stage that a big breakaway of around 29 riders got away, best placed overall is Quintana, with a 2 minute lead as they crested the first climb of the Col de Montsegur.

The pace shelled out most of the sprinters who formed a groupetto who had over 100 kms to ride on their own.

In the breakaway were Marc Soler, Andrey Amador (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali, Jan Tratnik, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida), Alexey Lutsenko, Omar Fraile (Astana), Romain , Bardet, Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), Sebastien Reichenbach, Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Bauke Mollema, Giulio Ciccone, Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Lennard Kämna, Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb), Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe). Michael Woods (EF Education First), Simon Geschke (CCC Team), Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Roman Kreuziger (Dimension Data), Amund Jansen (Jumbo-Visma) and Amael Moinard (Arkea-Samsic).

Behind, Deceuninck-QuickStep, Team Ineos and Lotto Soudal set the pace, not having anyone in the breakaway,  protecting their CG riders, Alaphilppe, Thomas, Bernal and Kruiswijk.

59 kms to go the peloton crests the Port de Lers ovre 5 minutes in arrears to the breakaway.

40 kms to go and the breakaway's lead started to come come down to 3 minutes.

Simon Geschke attacked from the breakway and crested the top of the Mur de Peguere Simon Yates and Reichenbach, Bardet, Quintana and Lutsenko in the next group.

All the favourites were in the Yellow jersey group; Alaphilippe, Kruijswijk, Bennett, De Plus, Porte, Thomas, Bernal, Poels, Pinot, Uran, Kangert, Barguil, Buchmann and Valverde.

Out front, Movistar were trying to bring Landa across to Quintana with 22 kms to go.

Adam Yates joined Simon Geschke in the lead as they have reached the foot of the final climb of the Foix Prat d’Albis, 11.8 at 6.9%. The final kilometres reached gradients of 11%. With 8.3 kms to go on the final climb, the duo had 2m 34s and looked like the winner would come from the breakaway.

With just 17 riders in the Yellow jersey group and 6.4 kms to go,  David Gaudu and Pinot came to the front of the Yellow Jersey group and set a hard pace.

6 kms to go and Pinot attacked the Yellow jersey group and dropped Thomas, only  Bernal, Alaphilippe and Buchmann could follow.

Pinot attacked again, only Bernal could follow, with 3.4 kms to go and Pinot attacked again and dropped Bernal.

Pinot already had opened up a lead of 40 secs lead over Alaphilippe.

Behind, Alaphilippe, Thomas, de Plus and Pouls are working together, as Kruiswijk attacked them.

With 1.5 kms to go Thomas attacked Alaphilippe who was struggling, Alaphilppe fought back to try and keep yellow.

On the line Simon Yates won, Pinot and Landa cnext then Bernal.

The winners were Pinot, Thomas, Kruijswijk, Bernal, Buchmann, all in the top six overall, with Mikel Landa moving up to seventh overall with his performance in the breakaway.

Alaphilippe is still in Yellow with 1m 35s lead on Thomas and 1m 47s on Kruijswijk, but was visibily disappointed to have been dropped in the final kilometres.

Tomrrow is the second rest day, as the race moves north towards the Alps for the final week.

VIDEO: 2019 Tour de France Stage 15 Highlights

2019 Tour de France Stage 15 Top 10

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 4:47:04
2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:33
3 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team
4 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:51
5 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos
6 Lennard Kämna (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:01:03
7 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:22
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
9 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:30

2019 Tour de France General classification after Stage 15

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 61:00:22
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:35
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:47
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:50
5 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 0:02:02
6 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:14
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:54
8 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:05:00
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:05:27
10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First 0:05:33