PLATEAU DE SOLAISON, France (AP) — Remco Evenepoel held off Tadej Pogacar and his teammate Isaac Del Toro to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France, while Pogacar kept his commanding overall lead and saw his main rival Jonas Vingegaard crash out of the race.
Vingegaard fell about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) from the end of the 184-kilometer (114-mile) trek, which ended with a big climb. His Visma–Lease a Bike team said in a statement posted on X that he sustained a fractured collarbone, which will require surgery in the coming days, and multiple abrasions.
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Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, and Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the best climber's dotted jersey, get ready for the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with the start in Mulhouse and the finish in Le Markstein Fellering, France, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison, France, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison, France, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison, France, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
“I’m really sad to see Jonas crash out. Without him the Tour will not be the same,” Pogacar said. “We go back a long way.”
Belgian rider Evenepoel withstood two attacks from Del Toro in the last 800 meters and then beat Pogacar in a dash to the line for his first stage win of this year's race and third overall on the Tour. Del Toro finished a few seconds behind them in third.
“It’s amazing, I’m literally trembling from emotions,” Evenepoel said. “You have to understand, I’m racing with the best rider ever and he’s been doing a hell of a climb. For me it’s a big step forward that I can follow this pace.”
Vinegaard's retirement means that Evenepoel climbed to second overall, five minutes behind four-time Tour champion Pogacar, with the 22-year-old Mexican Del Toro 5:58 back from Pogacar in third place.
Barring mishap, a fifth Tour crown looks inevitable for Pogacar, who has won four stages so far in this year's race.
Only Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault have won the overall Tour five times.
Sunday's trek featured one Category 1 (the second-hardest category) up Col de la Croisette and concluded with a HC climb (the hardest category) up Plateau de Solaison in the French Alps — an 11-kilometer slog with a punishing 9% gradient.
It was a special stage for the 19-year-old rising French star Paul Seixas, whose grandparents' house was about 15 kilometers from the finish. Seixas credits his grandfather, José Manuel Seixas, for introducing him to cycling when he was a youngster. Seixas finished fourth and is fourth in the standings, 6:23 behind Pogacar.
A lead group of nine riders, including Olympic mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock and American Quinn Simmons, headed up the sharp 4.7 kilometers of Col de la Croisette, with Simmons moving ahead.
Shortly after Vingegaard's crash, which saw the Danish rider tumble close to a roadside kerb after losing control of his front wheel, riders reached the Solaison ascent.
Pogacar caught Simmons with just under 5 kilometers remaining, with Del Toro and Evenepoel the only ones able to stick with him.
“I just kept my momentum and tried to go as hard as possible to the finish line,” said Evenepoel, who said his win will silence detractors who said he could not climb well. “On hard mountains like this, it’s really hard to beat guys like Tadej.”
Monday is the second rest day of the race, which concludes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 26.
Tuesday's 16th stage is an individual time trial and offers Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, a good chance for another stage win.
“We have a good rest day and then a beautiful day on Tuesday where I will try to go again for a stage win," Evenepoel said. "It’s amazing that I find my best legs for this Tour.”
He won the Tour time trial last year with a stunning ride.
Pogacar and Vingegaard were woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning by officials carrying out unannounced anti-doping tests.
Pogacar said his test was carried out at 5 a.m. and that Vingegaard’s was at 2 a.m.
The Slovenian star suggested fatigue may have led to his rival crashing.
“Me, I had a control (test) at 5 in the morning (and) Jonas did a control at 2 in the morning,” Pogacar said in a post-race interview on French television. “So you never know, maybe this was also the consequences of one bad sleep.”
Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, entrusts testing to the Swiss-based International Testing Agency.
Cycling’s reputation was heavily damaged when American Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles (1999-2005) after confessing in 2013 to having used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
Two years later, a 227-page report detailed cycling’s historic culture of drug use and investigated alleged mismanagement by the UCI.
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Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, and Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the best climber's dotted jersey, get ready for the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with the start in Mulhouse and the finish in Le Markstein Fellering, France, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison, France, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison, France, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison, France, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Supporters of India's youth-led Cockroach movement clashed with police Monday as thousands tried to march to Parliament to demand the education minister’s resignation, while the government appeared to make its first outreach to the movement’s leaders.
Police fired tear gas and charged at protesters with batons after demonstrators tried to breach security barricades surrounding the protest site in central New Delhi, marking one of the most serious confrontations in the movement’s campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Despite the crackdown, many protesters continued marching toward Parliament in small groups.
Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson Saurav Das accused authorities of “brutally cracking down” on “peaceful protesters.” Delhi Police said the march had not been authorized and that restrictions were needed to maintain law and order around Parliament during the monsoon session, which began Monday.
The crowd at Jantar Mantar, a designated site for protests just a few kilometers (miles) from Parliament, included students, professionals and families with young children. As the day progressed, the gathering spilled beyond the protest site, with demonstrators filling surrounding streets and roads.
Many carried backpacks with water and food, expecting a long day. Others waved Indian flags as chants against the education minister and Modi rippled through the growing crowd.
The Cockroach Janta Party emerged in May, after the Supreme Court chief justice compared some unemployed young people to “cockroaches” during an unrelated hearing. Supporters embraced the remark, turning it into a satirical movement that has attracted millions of followers on social media.
The movement has gained momentum after repeated leaks of high-stakes entrance exams for medical colleges and government jobs sparked public anger. It drew wider attention after police forcibly moved hunger-striking activist Sonam Wangchuk to the hospital on Saturday.
Protesters calling themselves “cockroaches” have camped at Jantar Mantar for the past month, with members of several student groups joining Wangchuk’s hunger strike. Thousands of supporters have also turned out at universities and rallies in other cities. They are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, reforms to the examination system and compensation for the families of students who died by suicide following paper leaks.
Senior leaders in Modi’s government have taken a hard line against the movement. Pradhan has accused the protesters of acting against the nation, while other ministers have acknowledged students’ concerns but insisted there is no need for talks or negotiations with the movement.
Though that appeared to shift Monday, when representatives of the movement held talks with Health Minister J.P. Nadda. It was the first apparent sign of government outreach to protest leaders, who sought to bring their demands directly to lawmakers, prompting authorities to tighten security around the complex.
CJP spokesperson Das, who met Nadda, said he presented the protesters’ demands, including the immediate resignation or removal of the education minister.
Separately, activist Wangchuk appealed for permission to temporarily leave the hospital and join the march.
In a handwritten note, he also said he would end his nearly three-week hunger strike only if the government took responsibility for failures in the education system and exam paper leaks, or if protesters were allowed to reach Parliament and lawmakers pledged to raise the issues in both Houses.
The protests have become a rare public challenge to Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in its third term, drawing support from opposition parties, rights activists and some Bollywood celebrities. Protesters say space for dissent has shrunk under Modi, whose government has been criticized for suppressing public protests by jailing activists and, in some cases, using forceful police crackdowns.
Jyoti Rajput, a yoga teacher, said she joined the protests because “this rotten system refuses to take action.”
“It cannot see the pain of students, and that’s why so many people have joined this movement,” she said.
For many others the campaign has expanded into a broader protest over government accountability. Some said they were driven by frustration with what they see as a lack of transparency and responsiveness from elected leaders.
Sneha Eppili, a 26-year-old protester, said she joined the demonstration because she believes the government has a responsibility to answer their questions.
“I voted for this government, so I think it’s accountable to answer our questions. That’s the basic human right that I deserve,” she said.
Security officers use tear gas shell to disperse supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party as they attempt to march to India's Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Shekhar Yadav)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party attempt to march to India's Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Shekhar Yadav)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party attempt to march to India's Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Shekhar Yadav)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party push against a barricade as they attempt to march to India's Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Shekhar Yadav)
Police officers stand guard at a protest site ahead of a planned march to India's Parliament by supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party demanding the resignation of India's education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party gather to march to India's Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party arrive as they gather to march to India's Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister, in New Delhi, Monday, July 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party shout slogans during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks in Mumbai, India, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party shout slogans during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks in Mumbai, India, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party shout slogans during a protest demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks in Mumbai, India, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
