Tour de France 2015 Stage 15: Greipel outsprints Degenkolb and Kristoff

Stage 15 leads in 183 kilometres from to Mende of Valence. It's a hilly ride with a flat finale. Cavendish is dropped early in the race and a break with Sagan is reeled on time. André Greipel powers to the win, taking his third win in the Tour de France 2015. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 15th stage Tour de France

1. Andre Greipel (ger)
2. John Degenkolb (ger) s.t.
3. Alexander Kristoff (nor) s.t.
4. Peter Sagan (svk) s.t.
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (nor) s.t.
6. Ramunas Navardauskas (lit) s.t.
7. Christophe Laporte (fra) s.t.
8. Michael Matthews (aus) s.t.
9. Davide Cimolai (ita) s.t.
10. Florian Vachon (fra) s.t.

GC after stage 15
1. Chris Froome (gbr)
2. Nairo Quintana (col) + 3.10
3. Tejay van Garderen (usa) + 3.32
4. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 4.02
5. Alberto Contador (spa) + 4.23
6. Geraint Thomas (gbr) + 4.54
7. Robert Gesink (nld) + 6.23
8. Vincenzo Nibali (ita) + 8.17
9. Tony Gallopin (fra) + 8.23
10. Bauke Mollema (nld) + 8.53

Race report
A big break of 27 riders is off atCôte de Badaroux, but then Katusha opens the chase in favour of Kristoff and the gap starts to shrink. When it’s down to 0’15” Sagan accelerates in the front group and he is accompanied by Pinot, Rogers, Bak, Geschke, Yates, Kwiatkowski, Trentin and Hesjedal. They race to a 3 minutes gain, while Cavendish is dropped and can forget about a win.

When the gain is down to 1 minutes Matteo Trentin gets clear in the downhill of Col de l’Escrinet. Hesjedal joins him, while the other escapees are reeled in. But with 29 km’s left the duo is brought back also.

Stybar breaks free at a small climb with 4 km’s left, but eventually it boils down to a bunch sprint with André Greipel powering to the win for the third time in the 2015 Tour de France.