The cruelness of the Pyrenees: Bram Welten OTL after fighting to the very end on stage 15 of the Tour de France

Making his debut at the Tour de France this year, Bram Welten was an integral part of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL’s sprint group and played an important role in the promising results with Fabio Jakobsen in the opening week’s sprint finales. Yet, it wasn’t only in the fast finishes that he could be found alongside Jakobsen, as when his Dutch compatriot was having a tough moment, Welten would always be the first to raise his hand to help. Showcasing a selfless attitude, Welten’s encouragement and positive attitude helped his teammate and friend through those tougher moments; something we can all aspire to.
When Jakobsen abandoned the race on stage 12, Welten was thrusted into the opportunity to be the team’s sprint finisher that day. Using his own experience as last lead-out man, he followed Nils Eekhoff and John Degenkolb who guided him excellently, but a bit of bad luck in the finale saw him unable to compete for a top result. Nonetheless, the optimistic Welten still crossed the line smiling and joyed at the fact he had secured a top 15 in his debut Tour.
“For me it was special to be the finisher in a race like the Tour de France and have the support of the team,” said Welten on the day.
The days that followed saw Welten, like many of the sprinters and classics riders in the peloton, suffer over the climbs as the GC riders came out to play and duke it out for stage wins. Coming through Saturday’s stage 14 as part of the grupetto, stage 15 on Sunday was set to be arguably one of the toughest stages of the race. Climbing from the flag drop an incredibly fast tempo was made and riders had to form their own groups on the climb with Welten, Eekhoff and Degenkolb teaming up in a group alongside another five or so riders, including Cavendish.
The task lying ahead of them was to ride the almost 190 kilometres and over 4200 metres of climbing in the small group, while ahead the peloton rode full-gas and never let up all stage. Their group didn’t give up either, but as the day progressed and the searing sun beat down over the Pyrenees, the enormity of their task became clear. Already 30 minutes down at the foot of the final climb to Plateau de Beille, the group could only concede a further 20 minutes to stage winner Pogacar by the top of the ascent.
As a result it meant the group had to go full-gas and unfortunately suffering after all of his previous efforts and being 15 stages into his first Tour de France, Welten had to let go of the wheels. Equally encouraged by the team’s following DS car and the many fans that lined the road, Welten heroically dug-deep and never gave-up as he tackled the last 11 kilometres of the climb alone. Battling the stinging gradients all the way to the finish an empty and emotional, rightfully so, Welten was embraced by Degenkolb and Eekhoff who had waited to applaud him over the line, and offer their words of solace to their teammate who left everything he had on that mountainside.