Race leader remains 3min 10sec ahead after finishing in peloton
Sunday 19 July 2015 17:16, UK
Chris Froome retained his 3min 10sec overall lead of the Tour de France as Andre Greipel sprinted to his third victory of the race on stage 15.
Although Mark Cavendish (Etixx - Quick-Step) was dropped on the first of the day’s four climbs, the other sprinters managed to stay in the peloton and Greipel (Lotto Soudal) capitalised by beating John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) into second and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) into third in Valence.
Froome (Team Sky) followed in the main bunch alongside all of his rivals to consolidate his advantage over second placed Nairo Quintana (Movistar), while Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) remains 3min 32sec back in third.
Greipel said: "The team supported me from kilometre zero and kept me out of the wind. They tried to keep me in the front group and it worked quite well, even though it was really hard to stay with the bunch today.
"At the end we were in the perfect position for the sprint, and I went the last 250m full gas and kept it to the line."
Stage 15 took the riders on a rolling 183km route containing four categorised climbs, the first of which began straight from the first kilometre.
The early pace was high as riders attempted to form the day’s breakaway, and it proved too fast for Cavendish, who was dropped out of the peloton and never regained contact.
A nine-man group eventually formed but they were never given more than three minutes’ lead and once the remaining sprinters in the field had safely crested the final climb, with 57km left, the escapees’ fate was sealed.
Katusha did the bulk of the work to chase the breakaway down and Kristoff appeared to be in prime position heading into the final 500m.
However, Greipel came past him with 200m to go and although Degenkolb mounted a strong challenge, his fellow German hung on to win by half a bike’s length.
The Tour continues on Monday with a 201km rolling stage from Bourg de Peage to Gap. Follow it with our live blog from 1pm BST and find out more about the route in our race guide.
Stage 15 result
1 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal, 3:56:35
2 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, same time
3 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha, st
4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) MTN-Qhubeka, st
6 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltn) Cannondale-Garmin, st
7 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, st
8 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, st
9 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
10 Florian Vachon (Fra) Bretagne-Seche Environnement, st
Selected others
23 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, st
25 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, st
52 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, st
General classification
1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 59:58:54
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +3:10
3 Tejay van Garderen (US) BMC Racing, +3:32
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +4:02
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +4:23
6 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +4:54
7 Robert Gesink (Net) LottoNL-Jumbo, +6:23
8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +8:17
9 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +8:23
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing, +8:53
