Just as he did on stage twelve, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha Team) stood tall after a difficult day of racing, claiming a second impressive Tour de France sprint victory as the peloton cruelly caught the breakaway riders' just metres from the finish line. When Kristoff won on Thursday the difficulty had come from the hilly finale, but today it came from having to fight the elements throughout the 222km of racing. There are faster sprinters in the peloton, but Kristoff is tougher than most; possessing the rare ability to produce his best speeds after a testing day in the saddle, when the other sprinters typically find their legs are sapped and their top speeds out of reach.
Travelling close to the coast in an area where the potent Mistral is wont to blow, stage fifteen had long been marked out as a day when the racing could be shaped by the weather. If the winds were up then echelons were likely, and the pre-race forecasts suggested that strong gusting winds were a possibility. With that in mind none of the sprint teams were willing to overly commit to controlling the break; why tire themselves out if a bunch sprint was far from certain? They were happy when just two riders formed the break of the day, as Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) and Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp) escaped the peloton early on.
The leading pair were allowed to build up a decent advantage but as the conditions deteriorated the pace rose behind. The first real echelons formed 70km from the finish in Nimes, as the Belgian Omega Pharma-Quick Step team drove the pace and split the field. However the road changed direction, the peloton reformed and Astana took control at the front initiating a brief period of calm. BMC Racing Team were the next to raise the pace and the pattern was set, the peloton went through periodic fast spells as teams tried to make one another uncomfortable. It brought the break under close control, but the winds weren’t consistent enough to shatter the peloton.
The conditions went from bad to worse as the race approached Nimes, and that deterioration brought hope to Elmiger and Bauer. With roundabouts and pools of standing water aplenty, the leading pair could easily navigate their way through roads that would prove tricky for a chasing pack to negotiate. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) tried to take advantage of that when, with 23km to go he attacked the peloton in the midst of a torrential downpour. However the rains eased and he rejoined the bunch 7km later.
Lotto Belisol then took up the chase, but were unwilling to commit fully to the pursuit, wisely remaining nervous of crashes; a bunch sprint seemed increasing unlikely with each passing kilometre. With 5.5km to go Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol) attacked the peloton only to be controlled by a chasing Katusha Team. Martin tried again with 2.5km remaining with the same result.
The gap at that stage was still 25 seconds and appeared insurmountable, but the peloton finished at a gallop, while Elmiger and Bauer were moving slower and slower, weighed down by the fatigue of spending a day in front of the peloton. They tried to fight for the stage win between themselves but were caught in the final hundred metres, as the speeding Kristoff surged for the line. Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) claimed 2nd and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) 3rd, while Bauer and Elmiger slumped to 10th and 16th place finishes respectively, their dream of a memorable victory shattered by a heartless peloton.