Tour de France betting news after stage 15 win from Simon Yates

Simon Yates broke away to win Sunday’s stage on a day when the chasing pack started to claw back the deficit on surprise GC leader Julian Alaphilippe.

Frenchman Alaphilippe, a 200-1 shot at the start of the race, was two minutes clear after Saturday’s stage and no bigger than even-money to remain in the yellow jersey at the end.

But he has been pushed out to 5-1 behind 13-8 Thibaut Pinot and 4-1 Geraint Thomas as doubts grow over his chances of holding off his rivals.

Alaphilippe’s advantage over Thomas was cut by 27 seconds to one minute and 35 seconds, but although Thomas moved up he will not be celebrating much after seeing his rivals race up the road in front of him for a second consecutive day.

Pinot attacked with seven kilometres left and picked up 55 seconds on Thomas, while Thomas’s teammate Egan Bernal gained 31 seconds after initially keeping up with Pinot.

After the stage, Thomas said he chose not to attack at the end as he did not want to help rivals catch Bernal.

“I felt better than yesterday but I needed to try to pace it when it all kicked off,” he said. “It’s a difficult one, tactics-wise. I wanted to go, I had the legs to go but I wasn’t going to chase down Egan Bernal with Alaphilippe on my wheel.”

Yates, 14-1 for victory on Sunday, was part of a large breakaway which also featured Nairo Quintana, Dan Martin, and Romain Bardet.

Simon Geschke attacked from the group on the steep Mur de Peguere around 45km from the finish of the 185km stage from Limoux, but Yates joined him at the summit and they raced clear of the rest.

Yates then struck out for victory early on the final climb, having the power to hold Mikel Landa and the late attack of Pinot at bay.

Monday is a rest day and the Tour resumes on tuesday in Nimes, and there are three big days in the mountains from Thursday before Sunday’s finale in Paris.

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