CARCASSONNE, France — Tim Wellens raced clear on the descent toward Carcassonne to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday while three-time champion Tadej Pogacar tightened his hold on the yellow jersey.

“I had the opportunity, I took it, and I had legs to finish it, but of course I trade my victory directly for a yellow with Tadej in Paris,” said Wellens, a teammate of Pogacar at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, after his first Tour stage victory.

With it, the Belgian rider became the 113th rider to take stage wins in all three Grand Tours. Wellens finished 1 minute, 28 seconds ahead of Victor Campenaerts and 1:36 ahead of Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert, and Axel Laurance.

“I knew that I had to enjoy the moment,” Wellens said. “I kept riding ‘till the finish line because I wanted a big gap to fully enjoy it and maybe put my bike in the air after the finish. But I was so happy to win that I forgot to do it.”

Pogacar and his closest general classification rivals, Jonas Vingegard and Florian Lipowitz, finished in a large group 6:07 behind Wellens. It meant the Slovenian rider maintained his overall lead of 4:13 over Vingegard and 7:53 over German rider Lipowitz.

Sunday’s 105.2-mile stage from Muret to the medieval city of Carcassonne got off to a chaotic start with a crash in the peloton affecting Alaphilippe, Lipowitz and many others. It appeared to be caused by a cobbled traffic island that caught one or more riders by surprise.

Alaphilippe looked to have hurt his left shoulder, but all could continue racing.

Pogacar, who’d raced ahead, was told over the radio to try and calm the bunch so Vingegaard and Lipowitz could resume contact.