Monday, 16 July 2012

Stage 15: Samatan - Pau

It’s taken two weeks, but today was the first unremarkable stage of this year’s Tour de France. Though unremarkable is never as fun and exciting as remarkable, a stage in which there are no crashes, no sabotage, no drama and which is characterised only by a couple of abandons and an unexpected finish is definitely a good stage. Stage 15 from Samatan to Pau was – finally – that stage.

Once again the attacks began as soon as the race left the neutral zone, groups struggling to stay off the front of the peloton. One or two breakaways seemed to be strong enough to last the distance, but they were inevitably pulled in by Team Sky sooner or later – usually sooner. When yet another break formed at the 60 kilometre mark Sky seemed happy with the composition, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bernhard Eisel in turn each signalling for the peloton to stop chasing, but the team’s newfound authority of yesterday was shortlived. The enthusiasm of the peloton had no effect, however, the five holding strong and building up a lead ahead of the bunch.

With a 1’30” lead the peloton finally tired of being on the defensive and slowed down, leaving Nicki Sorenson (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) floating between to eventually chase down and join the leading group of five. As they passed through the feedzone in Marciac, 60 kilometres from the stage finish, the sextet had a lead of almost six minutes over the peloton, still being led by Team Sky. The next excitement for the day was the breakaway passing the intermediate sprint, but the six chose not to contest the sprint, none of them being in the running for the green jersey, and even the peloton failed to create a stir, Sagan slipping quietly forward to take the next highest points as the peloton rolled through.

The abandons became coming through a little more thickly after that, Giovanni Bernardeau (Europcar) and Kenny van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) on the list with Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) as victims of Stage 15 of the Tour. The breakaway already up and over the first categorised climb of the day, a small Cat 4, the peloton slowed as they passed an oil patch on the descent, trying to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s carnage. The six out front continued extending their lead as the peloton took a rest day on the road, calm and unconcerned about the leaders 8’20” ahead of them on the road.

Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) continued to lead the breakaway over the next two climbs of the day, garnering another five points towards his polka-dot jersey total in all. As their lead reached 10’30” with just 25 kilometres to go, it became obvious that the break would stay away til the finish in Pau, and German André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) would have to forgo the chance at taking a stage win on his 30th birthday. Though the peloton was still rolling along, as cool as a cucumber, the breakaway were preparing for the inevitable attacks to split the group for a chance at the stage.

They began just outside of 10 kilometres to go, Sorenson leaping off the front to be quickly chased down by the other five riders. The next attack was more serious. Pierrick Fedrigo went off the front with seven kilometres left in the stage, quickly followed by Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp). The two began working together to maintain their lead over the chasing riders, not wanting to bring the Cofidis sprinter, Samuel Dumoulin, to the line with them. Voeckler, obviously feeling the same way, launched a solo pursuit of the duo, hovering somewhere in between the groups on his own.

But the duo up ahead had made too much of a gap, and the stage win was down to the Frenchman and the American. Fedrigo continued glancing back at Vande Velde as Fedrigo led the way into the final straight, waiting for the move. Perceiving a twitch, Fedrigo went for the sprint, Vande Velde not even moving out of the Frenchman’s wheel as they crossed the line, Fedrigo taking his second Tour de France stage victory in the town of Pau. The peloton arrived en masse nearly 12 minutes later, Greipel leading the sprint to take seventh on the stage, while the overall classification and jerseys remain unchanged.

Tomorrow is a rest day, but Stage 16 reaches the high Pyrénées mountains. This is where the big names – think Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali –will have to make their move if they want to have any chance of unseating Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins and Sky will be defending the yellow vigourously, though, so this could be the battle royale we’ve all been waiting for.

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