The 15th stage is a short one from Samatan to Pau. The city hosting the finish trades on the slogan: “Pau: Porte des Pyrenees” and although the 2012 Tour de France will soon be knocking on the door of the second major mountain range, this serves as a race for the sprinters and/or the opportunists. Peter Sagan slots into many categories – including, as we learned in stage 14, climber – but his advantage in the race for the green jersey is so large that even the insistent challenge from Orica-GreenEdge has been nullified. Instead of hunting points at every opportunity, both intermediate sprints and stage finishes, we can now expect the Australian team to focus solely on trying to lead Matt Goss out for its maiden victory in the Tour.
There are some undulations and the race is close to the Pyrenees but this is a day that is likely to be ridden extremely quickly. A stage win awaits the bold and then comes a day of rest before the GC men dictate terms again...