2013 Tour de France stage 15 results and photos

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2013 Tour de France
100th edition: June 29 - July 21, 2013

Stage 15 results and photos

Back to 2013 Tour de France | Photos from stage 15 (posted below results and maps) |

Sunday, July 14: Stage 15, Givors - Mont Ventoux, 242.5 km

Rated Ascents:

Km 20.5: Côte d'Eyzin-Pinet, 3.1 km @ 4.9% gradient, Category 4
Km 26.5: Côte de Primarette, 2.6 km @ 4.1%, Category 4
Km 44.5: Côte de Lens-Lestang, 2.1 km @ 3.8%, Category 4
Km 143.0: Côte de Bourdeaux, 4.2 km @ 5.7%, Category 3
Km 242.5: Mont Ventoux (1,912m), 20.8 km @ 7.5%, Hors Category

Chris Froome wins stage 15

Weather: At Bédoin, near the base of Mt. Ventoux at 12:25 PM local time it is 28C (82F), partly cloudy and is forecast to climb to 29C (85F) and full sun with no wind. The wind is forecast to become 20 km/hr from the north. 40% humidity.

The Race: All of yesterday's 181 finishers started today. This is the Tour's 15th visit to Mt Ventoux and the 9th time as a hilltop finish since it was first included in the Tour in 1951. It is also this year's longest stage.

After 50 km of high-speed racing the peloton allowed a 10-man break with Peter Sagan, Sylvain Chavanel and Daryl Impey to go clear. After 100 km the average speed had been a brisk 49 km/hr and the break was six minutes up the road. KOM Pierre Rolland and Marcus Burghardt had come very close to bridging the gap to the break, but gave up and returned to the peloton.

With Rolland's failure to join the break, his Europcar team started driving the peloton hard and with 110 km to go the gap was down to 3min 30sec.

Movistar was leading the Yellow Jersey group as the race passed the 60 km to go point, with the break 3min 16sec ahead. The stage continued to be fast with the first four hours being ridden at 46.6 km/hr.

Sky took over the job of leading the peloton with slightly less than 30 km to go. Sky's severe increase in speed quickly brought the break's lead down to 2min 30sec. That increase in intensity caused riders to be shot out the back even though the Mt. Ventoux climb had not yet been reached. They were actually on a short climb before Bédoin, where the climb proper begins.

At the start of the ascent of Mt Ventoux, Sylvain Chavanel was 20 seconds ahead of the break and 1min 47sec in front of the Sky-led peloton.

Five kilometers later other teams went to the front while Froome still had two teammates left. Mikel Nieve jumped away from the Yellow Jersey group and at the same time Andy Schleck was dropped, looking like he had run into a solid wall.

Bam! Nairo Quintana flew away with 12.6 km left and elicited no response from the others. Sky went back to leading the Yellow Jersey group. Two kilometers later Quintana caught Nieve and they were now 35 seconds ahead of the Froome group. All of the original breakaway riders had been absorbed.

Richie Porte drove the Froome group hard and with 8 km left it was just Porte, Froome and Contador. Everyone else had been shelled with Quintana and Nieve only 15 seconds up the road.

Whap! Seven km left and Porte pulled off and Froome soared away, easily leaving Porte and Contador behind. After just 200 meters of solo riding, Froome swept by Quintana. Quintana clawed his was back to Froome. At this point Nieve and Contador were fourteen seconds behind Froom and Quintana.

Under the 4km banner Froome unsuccessfully attacked Quintana. Nieve and Contador were 44 seconds back and the rest of the contenders chased at 100 seconds.

Finally, at 1.3 km to go Froome dispatched Quintana. Froome took a brilliant solo win and solidified his lead.

Results: