Le. Tour. De. France.
Enjoy your rest day? I sure did. So Stage 15 was a big disappointment for Jack Bauer who led for most of the way only to be caught out by Alexander Kristoff in a classic sprint finish. Almost forgotten by the english speaking media (Bauer is from New Zealand) is Martin Elmiger who was the second half of the 2 rider breakaway that nearly led from start to finish.
On the stage it was Kristoff, Heinrich Haussler, and Peter Sagan who led a group of 69 riders that shared the lead time including almost everyone of note and about 99 riders were within a minute at the finish. The last rider, Cheng Ji, the only rider from the People’s republic of China finished in a group of 17 riders a mere 12:20 behind.
In the General Classification there is therefore not much change, Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde BelMonte (4:37), Romain Bardet (4:50), Thibaut Pinot (5:06), Tejay Van Garderen (5:49), Jean-Christophe Péraud (6:08), Bauke Mollema (8:33), and Leopold Konig (9:32). Everybody else is more than 10 minutes behind. For Points it is Peter Sagan (402), Bryan Coquard (226), Alexander Kristoff (217), Marcel Kittel (177), Mark Renshaw (153), André Greipel (143), Vincenzo Nibali (134), and Greg Van Avermaet (115). Everyone else is 28 points behind. There were no points awarded in the Climbing contest so it is Joaquim Rodriguez and Rafal Majka tied at 88 with Vincenzo Nibali at 86. Everyone else is 37 points behind. In the Team competition it is AG2R, Belkin (12:42), Sky (38:32), Astana (46:10), Movistar (47:44), and BMC (51:01). Everyone else is over 1 hour behind. In Youth it is Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot (:16), Michal Kwiatkowski (14:34), and Tom Dumoulin (47:46). Everyone else is over an hour behind.
Today’s 148 mile stage is the start of the Pyrenees and has 2 Category 4s, 1 Category 2, 1 Category 3, and 1 Beyond Category climb. It is also the longest stage.
| Distance | Name | Length | Category |
| Km 25.0 | Côte de Fanjeaux | 2.4 km @ 4.9% | 4 |
| Km 71.5 | Côte de Pamiers | 2.5 km @ 5.4% | 4 |
| Km 155.0 | Col de Portet-d’Aspet (1 069 m) | 5.4 km @ 6.9% | 2 |
| Km 176.5 | Col des Ares | 6 km @ 5.2% | 3 |
| Km 216.0 | Port de Balès (1 755 m) | 11.7 km @ 7.7% | H |
The big climb is Port de Balès which is not only long but has 2 very steep sections with over 10% gradient. The Sprint Checkpoint is after the 2 Category 4s and it’s just as well because we won’t be seeing the sprinters for the rest of the day I’m thinking though the finish is on a steep descent.
So we could see some crashes as people attempt to make up time in the final 20 km though we’ll more likely see riders drop out under the load. There have been 10 withdrawls since Fabian Cancellara- Andrew Ralansky, David Del La Cruz Melgarejo, Alexander Porsev, Janier Alexis Acevedo Calle, Arthur Vichot, Daniel Navarro Garcia, Dries Devenyns, Rafael Valls, Rui Alberto Costa, and Simon Yates.
2 comments
Author
will have to have a major disaster to lose this. I am please to see the young frenchmen doing well and hoping Teejay can move up a bit. I read some cycling forums and already people are saying that even if Nibali wins it won’t be an impressive victory because Froome and Contador are out, I disagree Nibali hung with Contador in that one mountain stage and did well on those awful cobble stones. Sounds a bit sour grapes.