2015 Tour de France stage 15

The break had zero chance of succeeding today, the sprint teams would make sure of that. And yet, when the TV coverage finally started an hour already into the stage, I used my zoom to take a photo to see if I could work out who was the in the break and what the gap was. The screen was at a funny angel but I knew without hesitation what lanky rider was sitting third wheel–Ryder Hesjedal.

The nine man break of Lars Bak, Ryder Hesjedal, Simon Geschke, Adam Yates, Thibaut Pinot, teammates Michal Kwiatkowski & Matteo Trentin, and teammates Mick Rogers and Peter Sagan originally started out as a massive 27 man break, before the bulk of them were dropped.

The peloton let the escapees roll ahead, never giving them more than about 3 minutes. At the foot of the final categorized climb, their advantage had tumbled to just 1:43 with a little over 60km to go.

With 50km left and hardly a sixty second lead, Trentin had had enough and attacked the break. Hesjedal was the only one to give chase, catching the Italian as the breakaway leftovers were caught. The pair held on to a slim margin of 41″ in the final 36km. Sagan, meanwhile, suffered a mechanical, causing him to change bikes before chasing furiously to get back to the peloton. The Slovakian came in to today's stage with a career 15 second place finishes in the Tour to his name and he liked his chances for today.

Trentin and Hesjedal were caught with 30km remaining as the sprint team positioned themselves and Sagan rejoined. Just before the 3km mark, Czech rider Zdenek Stybar had a go and attacked. The peloton was flying but it still took them until the final kilometer to catch Stybar.

I watched the next few hundred meters on the big screen. Lotto Soudal executed their train while every other sprinter (with the notable exception of Mark Cavendish who had been riding in the gruppeto for quite some time) stole a free ride. They hit the final roundabout and stormed up the straightaway for the last 250 meters.

It was tight but John Degenkolb and Andre Greipel were clearly ahead of the competition with 50 meters to go.

It would be close between the two Germans.

So agonizingly close.

I support Greipel but as he already has two stages, I was pulling for Degenkolb.

Come on, Dege!

The winner was clear: Greipel got his hat trick. Degenkolb was second, Alexander Kristoff third, Sagan, who either bumped shoulders with or leaned on Europcar's sprinter Bryan Coquard (you can see him leaning in the previous photo), fourth, Edvald Boasson Hagen fifth, and Ramunas Navardauskas was sixth.

Greipel's average speed in the final kilometer was 54.43 kph and he crossed the finish line traveling at 59.33 kph. He wasn't my first choice today, but I won't say he didn't earn this win.

I was so full of adrenaline that it took me a moment to recover and start taking photos again! Vincenzo Nibali, Sep Vanmarcke, and Geraint Thomas.

Alberto Contador.

Second in yesterday's stage after infighting with Romain Bardet allowed Steven Cummings to claim the victory, Pinot rolled in today.

Adriano Malory and Andrew Talansky.

Jacopo Guarnieri.

Angelo Tulik.

Koen De Kort, crestfallen with his team leader's second place result.

Lieuwe Westra didn't seem too chipper himself.

Jens Debusschere.

Michael Valgren.

Adam Hansen.

Marco Haller.

Stybar.

A bunch.

With an average speed of 46.411kph, today's stage was surprisingly fast. What was supposed to be a day for just the sprint teams turned into a working day for everyone, resulting in tired and sour faces at the finish line, with the notable exception of Bob Jungels and Michael Schär who were killing themselves laughing about something.

Julien Simon and Ian Stannard.

Daniel Oss.

Another group.

The stage had only been over for no more than 3 minutes, but I headed to the podium rather than wait to see the rest of the riders finish in dribs and drabs. Below: Julian Arredondo watched the replay on his way to the team bus.

Greipel on the podium for his stage win.

Chris Froome kept the yellow jersey, as expected. The GC top 10 stayed the same as yesterday.

Peter Sagan extended his lead in the points competition and now leads Greipel 360 points to 316.

Though he's focused on GC, Froome retained his lead as the KOM.

An ear to ear grin from Nairo Quintana in the white jersey.

Sagan fans were thrilled to see their man on the podium again, this time as the most combative rider.

Today was supposed to be a relatively easy stage but it didn't work out that way, which will make stage 16 all the more taxing. Coming in at 201km, the peloton will be climbing pretty much from the gun. There are only two categorized climbs, both cat 2 and both in the second half, but the last one, Col de Manse, could well cause damage. It's nearly 9km long and though it averages just 5%, the steepest ramps near the bottom hit 11%. What's worse than the climb is the descent. It's fast and can be technical in parts, but there is too much on the line to take it easy, especially with a rest day on Tuesday. It'll be interesting to see if Tejay Van Garderen can keep his current third place or if Contador, 30″ back, can leapfrog him. Froome has said all year the Quintana can't ride away from him and after the Brit's acceleration in the closing meters of stage 14 to gain one second on the Colombian, he may be right but you can be sure Quintana won't go down quietly.