Tour de France 2016 Favourites stage 15: Strong descenders with adventurous minds

At 159 tough kilometres, stage 15 leads the riders over eight cols from Bourg-en-Besse to Culoz. A grueling series of six climbs leads tow the 'twins' Grand Colombier/Lacets de Colombier. The finish lies in the valley, so that's good news for strong descenders. Chances are it will be up to the attackers. (Slideshow route/profile)

The Grand Colombier is the hors category climb of the day: 12.8 kilometres at 6.8%. At the top it’s 46 kilometres left to the finish line. In the drop the riders pass Lacets de Colombier, which lies halfway the mountain. After the first passage in Culoz it goes back up there, a 8.4 kilometres climb at 7.6%. After cresting the last 13 kilometres are half half downhill, the other part is flat.

One may wonder if the teams of the GC guys will feel like controlling the race. The course features six categorised cols – one hors category, two 1st category -, plus a string of non-categorised climbs. So chances are it will be up to the attackers. As the finale is partly downhill, good descenders will be eyeing up their chances. Are we going to see a bold Froome-attack?

Favourites 15th stage Tour de France 2016:

*** Thomas De Gendt, Rui Costa, Vinceno Nibali, Ion Izagirre, Nelson Oliveira
** Romain Bardet, Serge Pauwels, Tony Martin, Chris Froome, Julian Alaphilippe
* Alejandro Valverde, Stef Clement, Stephen Cummings, Alexis Gougeard, Fabio Aru, Rafal Majka