Tour de France 2014: Kristoff victor, escapees caught on the line

Sunday July 20th, 2014 - No real obstacles in the 222 kilometres between Tallard and Nîmes. Looks like the 15th stage will bring a bunch sprint and so it does. Escapees Elmiger and Bauer are caught on the line and powersprinter Kristoff takes the win. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 15th stage Tour de France 2014

1. Alexander Kristoff (Nor)
2. Heinrich Haussler (aus) s.t.
3. Peter Sagan (Svk) s.t.
4. André Greipel (Ger) s.t.
5. Mark Renshaw (aus) s.t.
6. Bryan Coquard (fra) s.t.
7. Ramunas Navardauskas (lit) s.t.
8. Romain Feillu (fra) s.t.
9. Michael Albasini (Swi) s.t.
10. Jack Bauer (nzl) s.t.

GC after stage 15th stage
1. Vincenzo Nibali (ita)
2. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 4.27
3. Romain Bardet (fra) + 4.50
4. Thibaut Pinot (fra) + 5.06
5. Tejay van Garderen (USA) + 5.49
6. Jean-Christophe Peraud (fra) + 6.08
7. Bauke Mollema (Nld) + 8.33
8. Leopold König (Cze) + 9.32
9. Laurens ten Dam (Nld) + 10.01
10. Pierre Rolland (fra) + 10.48

11. Jurgen Van den Broeck (bel) + 11.02
13. Rui Costa (por) + 12.57
14. Fränk Schleck (lux) + 14.37
15. Richie Porte (aus) + 16.03
17. Michal Kwiatkowski (pol) + 19.24

Race report
At 5 kilometres Jack Bauer and Swiss champion Martin Elmiger are off on an adventure. The bunch agrees and the gain of the duo grows to over 9 minutes. Then Lotto and Giant Shimano take the lead to control the break in favor of their sprinters Greipel and Kittel. Also Katusha moves upfront for Kristoff.

With 22 kilometres to go the gap is down to around 1 minute, but the reeling stops. At 3 kilometres it’s still 0’30” and a string of roundabouts complicate the chase. Are Bauer and Elmiger going to succeed? Tony Martin options for a solo to close the gap, but doesn’t succeed.

After an escape of over 220 kilometres the duo is caught in the last metres. Alexander Kristoff outsprints Haussler, Sagan and Greipel. Kittel is nowhere to be seen.