Carcassonne (France) July 23 (IANS) Denmark s Magnus Cort Nielsen of Astana won the 15th stage of the Tour de France road cycling race coming out ahead in a three-rider sprint to the finish line while Geraint Thomas of Britain (Sky) kept the overall leader s yellow jersey.
Cort Nielsen 25 claimed his career-first Tour stage win after beating Spain s Jon Izagirre (Bahrain) and the Netherlands Bauke Mollema (Trek) who were the last survivors of a breakaway group of 29 reports Efe.
Cort Nielsen needed four hours 25 minutes and 52 seconds to finish the hilly 181.5-km (112.7-mile) course while the peloton reached the finish line 13 minutes later.
The overall standings remained unchanged with Thomas in front of defending champion Chris Froome -- his countryman and fellow Sky teammate -- by one minute and 39 seconds while Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) kept third one minute and 50 seconds off the pace.
Monday will be a day off for the riders their second of the 2018 Tour.

--IANS pur/pgh/