The Manxman took another great lead-out, from Mark Renshaw, to put the jump on his rivals. Cav will take solace in the fact that his closest rival Jose Joaquin Rojas could only manage fifth, which earned him less than half the points of the British rider. Cavendish has all but sealed his position in the green jersey, with a 37 point lead over second place Rojas.
Third place man and last year’s green jersey winner Petacchi has had a torrid tour and this is his best result, of the tour so far. The Italian lies down in tenth in the standings, with 223 points than his younger counterpart. Only the Champs-Elysees remains for the maillot vert hopefuls and Cavendish will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s finale, to take his first points victory in the Tour de France.
Back to the flat
Stage 15 provided some respite for the tired legs and easing the peloton into the second rest day. William Bonnet will be getting a longer rest than he anticipated, after he finished outside the time limit atop the Plateau de Beille. His withdrawal leaves the peloton with 170 riders, which is bound to reduce in the Alps.
Laurens Ten Dam was described as “hard as a rock”, by his teammate, after the Dutchman made it to the peloton, despite crashing on his face. Ten Dam overshot a corner on the descent, before hitting a grassy verge. He later commented that he still had 25 stitches fewer than Johnny Hoogerland, with his 33.
Keeping the breakaway on a short lead
With the yellow and polka-dot jerseys safe for the day, a breakaway was allowed to go almost immediately. A five man group launched off the front of the peloton, after 3km of riding, including Niki Terpstra and Mikael Delage. The peloton didn’t give them a long leash to play with and they could only manage to pull the gap to just over 3 minutes.
It was a relatively uneventful day for the riders, despite having to negotiate some wet roads, after early rain, but avoided any crashes. Stage winner Cavendish had to stop for a change of wheel, after a puncture, but was able to get back to the group pretty soon. Back up the front, Mikhail Ignatyev took the one point available on the sole categorised climb.
Victory in sight
With only 22km left to go Ignatyev decided to go for the victory and launched a solo attack, on his breakaway companions. He worked hard, but was forced to give up with only 6km left to go and joined forces with Terpstra. The peloton eventually swallowed up Terpstra with 2.5km left and the sprinter’s teams began to organise, for the final sprint. Ben Swift put on a good show, for his first Tour de France, finishing in a solid 6th place.
Monday will be the second rest day for the riders, with the Col de Manse looming in Stage 16.
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