Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) claimed his second stage win in Nîmes after the peloton caught the two gallant breakaway riders in a thrilling finale. The day’s breakaway of Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp) and Martin Elmiger (IAM) had their dreams of a Tour stage win crushed when they were caught heartbreakingly close of the finish line, with an exhausted Bauer swallowed up by the peloton only meters before the finish line. It was one of those rare sprinter stages which nearly didn’t go to script and of course we all wanted the underdogs to take the win.
It was a day that Jack Bauer and the fans will never forget, and exactly the type of thing that makes this sport so gripping.
Read the full race report and results from Stage 15 of the 2014 Tour de France here.
Read Jack Bauer’s reaction to his disappointing stage here.
Enjoy the photos from stage 15 courtesy of BrakeThrough Media (follow on Instagram and Twitter) and Cor Vos.
- Martin Elmiger (IAM) attacked from the start in Tallard and was joined by Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp), the two being allowed up the road to forge the day’s breakaway. In 30km of racing the two leaders gained more than seven minutes on the peloton with the lead eventually peaking at 8:50.
- With late attacks by Jan Bakelants and Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), it completely disorganised Lotto-Belisol’s and Giant-Shimano’s leadouts which found their sprinters too far back at the start of the bunch kick.
- “It’s just bitter, bitter disappointment,” said Bauer after the race in Nîmes. “It was a childhood dream to win a stage of the Tour de France. For a person like myself, a domestique, I am normally working for others. So it is my first chance to actually be up the road and with the change in the wind and the weather in the last 100 kilometres, we really realised, myself and Martin, were in with a chance for the win.”
- Alexander Kristoff getting his second stage win this year at the Tour de France.
- Vincenzo Nibali still holds a comfortable lead in the overall classification with 4:37 ahead of Alejandro Valverde.
- Bauer said after the race, “With five k to go I thought it was pretty much certain that we were going to take the stage because of the roundabouts, the slickness on the roads. Even myself and Martin were sliding all over the road, and we could pick our own lines and our own pace. It was obviously a lot harder for those in the peloton, and it slows the pace of the peloton down. So with five k to go I really started playing the game. Maybe I played it a little too much but, looking backwards with one kilometre, we still had a decent gap. Martin tried his move and I was on his wheel straight away. I tried my hand with 400 to go and I think I just came up a little bit too short.”