Movement on all fronts

Two distinctive jerseys, just like Merckx
In the end there was only one: from the members of the “Big Four”, Chris Froome stamped his superiority on his opponents, who did not really turn out to be his rivals and who were rarely able to battle with him for the Yellow Jersey. In total, the British rider wore it for 16 of the 21 stages on the programme, putting it on for the first time on the Mur de Huy, at which point the hierarchy had already assumed its final outline. Froome followed on from Fabian Cancellara, whose 30th and probably last day in yellow became an ordeal after a fall and withdrawal from the race. The following occupier of the leading position was hardly any more fortunate, because, following his unexpected victory in Cambrai, Tony Martin only wore the hard-fought Yellow Jersey for two days until he fractured his collar bone on the finish of the stage in Le Havre. Three days later, with the support of his team-mates, in Plumelec Froome withstood the most insistent threat in the form of Tejay van Garderen, with the American only gaining one second after victory in the team time-trial by BMC.
 
Finally, it was indeed Nairo Quintana, the bookmakers' favourite at the start of this Tour de France designed for climbers, who troubled the “British Robot” on the Alpine stages. The Colombian's attacks brought Froome's lead down from 3'10'' to 1'12'', making it the smallest winning margin between the top two in the general classification since 2008. However, the comeback from the Movistar leader did not shake Chris Froome. In comparison to the title he won on the 100th edition, this time he also added the Polka Dot Jersey, a feat last achieved by a Tour de France winner in 1970 by none other than Eddy Merckx! It was only on the evening of the stage finishing at Alpe d'Huez that the climbers' classification found a winner. To start with, it was dominated by Daniel Teklehaimanot, the first wearer of a distinctive jersey for an African team, namely MTN-Qhubeka. The Eritrean rider lost it on the evening of Froome's victory at La Pierre-Saint-Martin, but then the Polka Dots became the possession of Joaquim “Purito” Rodriguez and then Romain Bardet, following his victory at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. To keep the Polka Dot jersey that he was wearing by procuration on the penultimate stage, the Frenchman would have had to have finished in the day's top three.
 
Sagan in green once again
There are several ways to seek out the green jersey and hang on to it. Peter Sagan has tried several methods, starting with the most obvious on his discovery of Le Tour in 2012, namely winning stages. With a total of three that year, the Slovak improved his roll of honour in 2013 with a win in Albi, which is his last to date. Since then, the acrobat of the pack has developed another speciality on Le Tour, unwillingly collecting second places, either in group sprints or at the end of breakaways. Sagan did not allow himself any respite in his hunt for stage wins (and also intermediate sprints). Among the five finishes on which he had to swallow his disappointment (and 10 top 5 finishes in total), it is possible to pinpoint the one that left him with most regrets: perhaps not behind Greipel in Zeeland and Amiens; a bit more so at Le Havre where he was beaten by Stybar, or in Gap by Plaza; but certainly in Rodez, where the other collector of respectable finishes in the international pack, Greg Van Avermaet, withstood his efforts over the last few metres. Regardless, at the same time as mastering the points classification and the strategies of how to dominate it, the Tinkoff-Saxo rider also developed his composure. Having long been compared to Sean Kelly, Sagan showed that he was already delighted to emulate him with four Green Jerseys in his locker. And he is only 25 years old…
 
Without Marcel Kittel, how were the German riders going to try and reproduce their collective performance of 7 victories in 2014? The bar was set very high, but the Teutonic delegation was able to rely on André Greipel to take up the baton and assume the mantle of best sprint finisher on Le Tour. Out of the five sprint finishes in which he took part, the Gorilla won four times, including the tricky stage on the Champs-Elysées. To increase his country's spoils, he was assisted by Tony Martin in Cambrai and Simon Geschke, the surprise winner of the mountain stage at Pra-Loup. With 6 victories, they fell one short, but more in-depth analysis shows that the 11 riders enrolled from the other side of the Rhine could have performed even better: John Degenkolb, the winner of Milan - San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, just missed out on several occasions, whilst Tony Martin finished only just behind Rohan Dennis on the only individual time-trial in Utrecht.
 
Bardet and Pinot help make it 3-3 with the UK
In comparison, the French riders mostly seized the opportunities that they were presented with, after a start to Le Tour which soon distanced them from the top of the general classification. Alexis Vuillermoz, having already been in the reckoning on the Mur de Huy, was especially rewarded for his audacity and power by winning at Mûr-de-Bretagne. He was imitated in the Alps by the two French climbers of the future: Romain Bardet demonstrated his descending talents to win at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, whilst Thibaut Pinot withstood the return of Quintana to raise his arms over the finishing line at Alpe d'Huez. The duo thus made up for the disappointment in Lozère, when Steve Cummings shot past them in Mende to beat them at the aerodrome. It was in particular thanks to this success, also the first for an African team, that the UK finished the Big Loop among the nations boasting three stage victories (Cavendish in Fougères and Froome at La Pierre-Saint-Martin), a rank also shared by Spain (Joaquim Rodriguez at Huy and Le Plateau de Beille, as well as Ruben Plaza at Gap).
 
Spain enjoyed a more positive race than the blank slate of 2014 thanks to two riders racing for Katusha and Lampre-Merida, but the Iberian team Movistar can also look back on Le Tour 2015 with pride. Although Quintana missed out on the Yellow Jersey, finishing the race in the White Jersey for the second time, he was accompanied on the final podium by Alejandro Valverde, who enjoyed his best result on Le Tour. This double podium finish also came with triumph in the team classification, as the two leading riders never required a third man capable of improving their position in the collective hierarchy.