André Greipel makes it three

172 riders started stage 15 in Mende. Inspired by the historical victory of his team-mate Stephen Cummings on Mandela Day, Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) was the first attacker after flag off. Lieuwe Westra (Astana) and Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Garmin) inspired a move of 16 riders who rode away in the côte de Badaroux where Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) lost contact with the peloton. As it would be a long day of suffering at the back for the winner of stage 7 in Fougères, 27 riders gathered in the lead due to the regrouping of several counter-attackers: Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Michael Rogers and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Winner Anacona and José Herrada (Movistar), Lars Bak and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), Purito Rodriguez (Katusha), Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Michal Kwiatkowski, Matteo Trentin and Rigo Uran (Etixx-Quick Step), Cyril Gautier and Perrig Quémeneur (Europcar), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Bob Jungels (Trek), Kristjian Durasek and Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Andrew Talansky, Ryder Hesjedal and Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Garmin), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18) and Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka).

Katusha in the chase

Katusha took charge of the chase straight away and continued to pull even when the breakaway group split. At km 35, 9 of 27 leading riders formed a new front group at the initiative of Peter Sagan who rode very aggressively again, the day after his exploit in Mende (5th). The nine escapees were: Pinot, Rogers, Sagan, Bak, Geschke, A. Yates, Hesjedal, Kwiatkowski and Trentin. Katusha gave up with 108km to go while the time difference was 2.20. Team Sky took over but the maximum time gap was 3 minutes with 80km to go, just before Michael Rogers had a flat tyre, which slowed the front group as his companions waited for him. Rogers led Sagan out for another intermediate sprint victory in Aubenas. Katusha returned at the command of the bunch to bring the deficit down while the group of stragglers including Cavendish and Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R-La Mondiale) was timed more than eight minutes behind the escapees.

Victory number 9 at the Tour de France

50km before the finish, Matteo Trentin rode away solo. Ryder Hesjedal joined him 13 kilometers further. Their former breakaway companions were reeled in with 40km to go by the peloton led by Europcar. The peloton was together again with 29km remaining. Three teams paced for their sprinters: Lotto-Soudal for André Greipel, Katusha for Alexander Kristoff and Europcar for Bryan Coquard. Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-Quick Step) tried to repeat his audacious finale of stage 6 in Le Havre. He attacked with 3.5km to go but was reeled in under the flamme rouge. Rushing to the line with full confidence after winning stage 2 and stage 5, Greipel proved once again to be the strongest this year while Cavendish was absent. The German “gorilla” from Rostock claimed his ninth stage win at the Tour de France.