2015 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11

The 2015 Tour de France was the 102nd edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour started in Utrecht, Netherlands on 4 July and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 26 July. On 13 July, between stages nine and ten there was a rest day in Pau.

Stage 1

 * 4 July 2015 — Utrecht, 13.8 km individual time trial (ITT)

The Tour began on 4 July in the Netherlands, with an individual time trial that started and finished at Jaarbeurs, Utrecht. Because of its length, it did not qualify as a prologue. The course, which featured 20 turns and two roundabouts (traffic circles), was flat and mildly technical.

The first rider off the start ramp was Daniel Teklehaimanot of, who became the first black African to compete in a Tour de France. Jos van Emden of set the first good benchmark time, clocking in at 15' 11". He remained atop the leaderboard until Rohan Dennis of  took over with a time of 14' 56". Dennis, who had clocked an average speed of 55.446 km/h, held on to win the stage and became the first yellow jersey wearer of the race. With his performance, he established a new record for average speed in a Tour de France individual time trial. Tony Martin of took second, finishing five seconds behind Dennis. Fabian Cancellara, who came into the event with five previous Tour de France opening time trial victories, finished six seconds off Dennis' time and took third.

In the battle for the general classification, Thibaut Pinot of had one of the best times among the favorites for overall classification, 41 seconds behind Dennis, despite not having a reputation as a good time trialist. Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Vincenzo Nibali also set good times, finishing one and two seconds behind Pinot, respectively.

Stage 1 result and general classification

Stage 2

 * 5 July 2015 — Utrecht to Zeeland, 166 km

This flat stage started in Utrecht. The riders rode underneath the Dom Tower and then went to De Meern. The race headed through Gouda before an intermediate sprint in Rotterdam. The peloton continued west through Spijkenisse and Hellevoetsluis, before crossing Haringvliet and Grevelingen. The finish was on Neeltje Jans, an artificial island at the entrance to the Scheldt estuary, in the province of Zeeland. Cycling commentators suggested before the race that strong winds off the sea could have a major impact, potentially splitting the peloton into echelons.

Before the start, at km 0, an honorary start in Utrecht, which involved the playing of the French and Dutch national anthems in the presence of Jan van Zanen, Mayor of Utrecht, Christian Prudhomme, the race director and cycling legends Bernard Hinault and Joop Zoetemelk.

After the ceremonies, the race begun, and a breakaway formed, which consisted of 's Bryan Nauleau, Jan Bárta of, Stef Clement representing and 's Armindo Fonseca. The quartet weren't allowed a significant time gap, however, with their maximum lead over the peloton remaining below three minutes throughout the stage. At the intermediate sprint in Rotterdam, won by Barta, their lead was a mere 30". Whilst he, Clement and Fonesca desperately tried to continue riding before the yellow jersey group, they were caught with 62 km to go.

It was then that the race headed towards the open sea, and large echelons were formed. The riders were split into three groups, however the last two of those eventually merged. When the situation became clear, 2nd and 3rd placed Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara, sprinters Mark Cavendish and André Greipel and GC favourites Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Tejay van Garderen were all shown to be in the first group, whilst leader Rohan Dennis and other GC favourites Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodríguez and Thibaut Pinot were all in the second group. Thanks to work from world champion Michał Kwiatkowski (who later received the combativity award for his work),, and , the gap continued to increase, eventually reaching over one minute. This was a clear blow to the chances of those caught in the second group.

During the sprint finish, Cavendish had his leadout man Mark Renshaw helping him. However, as Cavendish later said, Renshaw got out of the way too early making for a long sprint. This allowed Greipel, Sagan and Cancellara to catch up. Greipel later won a very close sprint finish, with Sagan second and Cancellara third. Cavendish gave up towards the end and came fourth. Had he continued, and come in third, his teammate Tony Martin would have taken the yellow jersey. Instead, the time bonus for his position was sufficient to grant the yellow jersey to Cancellara. Eventually, the second group arrived 1'28" behind the winners.

Stage 3

 * 6 July 2015 — Antwerp to Huy, 159.5 km

The tour moved to Belgium for the third stage, starting in Antwerp and ending in Huy. The stage proper began at the end of the neutral zone in Boechout, south-west of Antwerp, and continued through Lierre, Aarschot, Tienen and Hannut. Andenne was followed quickly by the first climb of the tour, which was the category 4 Côte de Bohissau. Following a sprint at Havelange, the tour went over the category 4 Côte de Ereffe and the Côte de Cherave on the outskirts of Huy. The stage finished on the category 3 Mur de Huy, a 1.3 km climb with a maximum gradient of 19% in the final few hundred metres.

Like in the previous stage, the day's breakaway was formed immediately after the start. Bryan Nauleau and Jan Bárta were in it again, like the day before, joined by Martin Elmiger representing and 's Serge Pauwels, again making a quartet. This time, they were allowed a slightly bigger lead, as it reached four minutes before the peloton began the chase. Barta won the most combative rider of the day award.

As they were being caught, and when the peloton was getting ready to tackle the first climb of the Tour at full speed, (the Côte de Bohisseau) a huge crash occurred in the field. Among those who went down were leader Fabian Cancellara, third placed Tom Dumoulin who was also the leader of the young rider's classification, William Bonnet and Simon Gerrans. The peloton was initially neutralized to allow those riders to catch up so that the riders could come back to the peloton, before being completely stopped at the foot of the ascent. The cause for this was the lack of ambulances and the doctor, who were all busy treating the injured riders. Bonnet, Gerrans and Dumoulin abandoned, soon followed by Dmitry Kozontchuk. Once the race restarted, the Bohissau climb was neutralised.

Green jersey holder André Greipel took full points at the intermediate sprint in Havelange, before the climbs of the fourth category Côte d'Ereffe and Côte de Cherave. None of these caused major losses from the GC contenders, although the Cherave did slightly split the bunch. Cancellara was already far back, experiencing the effects from his crash, ensuring a loss of the yellow jersey. On the Mur de Huy, the favourites came to the fore, and it was Joaquim Rodríguez who attacked with 400 m to go, ensuring a stage victory for himself. Chris Froome came second, and later took the yellow jersey as Cancellara came in almost twelve minutes after the winner. He gained time over his GC rivals. Later, Froome said, "I didn’t wake up today thinking I was going to be in yellow", and, "That was a real surprise there."

Later in the evening, it was revealed that Cancellara had suffered two transverse process fractures in two vertebrae in his lower back. He abandoned the race.

Stage 4

 * 7 July 2015 — Seraing to Cambrai, 223.5 km

The fourth stage was the Tour's first entry into France as the peloton covered seven sectors of pavé on the way to Cambrai.

This flat stage departed from Seraing heading west through Huy, to Namur, where the riders faced the category 4 Côte de la Citadelle de Namur. The riders passed around the northern outskirts of Charleroi, through Sombreffe and over the first section of cobbles between Pont-à-Celles and Gouy-lez-Piéton. The race then continued towards the south-east to Binche, before an intermediate sprint at Havay. Three-quarters of the way through the stage, after passing through Le Quesnoy, where the race turned north-west, the six remaining sections of pavé followed. Sector 6 arrived before reaching Famars, where the riders turned south-west. Sectors 5 and 4 followed before the turn south-east at Saulzoir. The riders then did have a tarmac surface to Saint-Python. Sectors 3, 2 and 1 then all occurred on the way west to Carnières. The riders then returned to the tarmac surface to the finish line at Cambrai.

At the start, a special ceremony was held involving the king of Belgium, Philippe. Once the race got underway, another four-rider breakaway was formed. It consisted of 's Lieuwe Westra, Thomas de Gendt of, Perrig Quémeneur representing and 's Frédéric Brun. Due to the length of the stage, the riders were allowed a bigger time gap—nine minutes before started the pursuit. At the intermediate sprint in Havay, which De Gendt won, the time gap was down to two minutes. Whilst they made it through the first cobbled section together, the peloton continued to speed up, and they were caught before the third sector.

In sector 4 (the first of four sectors, counting down to one) the group split into two. Fifty riders were left in the main group, which included most of the general classification favorites. The only main rider missing was Thibaut Pinot, who not only lost in the split, he also had to stop twice for equipment changes and ended up losing 3' 23" to the stage winner. Vincenzo Nibali attacked three times on the cobbled sectors, but to no avail other than getting him the most combative rider award.

None of the other cobbled sectors were sufficient to split the leaders, who prepared for a sprint finish, with riders such as Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb (winner of the cobbled classic Paris–Roubaix earlier in the year) being seen as the most likely to win. With 3.1 km to go, however, Tony Martin attacked. Whilst his lead reached a maximum of a few seconds, the team of race leader Chris Froome,, were happy to give him the yellow jersey. Thus, with only chasing, Martin managed to stay ahead of the bunch with a 3" advantage, taking the stage and the yellow jersey. It was seen as finally turning his luck, as he had been in second place since the start of the Tour, with time gaps of 5", 3" and 1" after each stage and to a different leader. He later said to the organisers, "It's a super nice story and it makes me super happy", and, "I'm pretty sure to stay in yellow until the Pyrenees".

Stage 5

 * 8 July 2015 — Arras to Amiens, 189.5 km

The first full stage in France covered a relatively flat course. Expected to be the first proper stage for sprinters, the stage began in Arras and headed north to the outskirts of Lens, before turning south to head through Croisilles and Bertincourt, and on to an intermediate sprint at Rancourt. The peloton turned west at Peronne taking a circuitous route to Albert and on south to Lamotte-Warfusée. The race then continued west into Amiens.

The stage was dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died during World War I, with sites such as the Arras Memorial, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the British cemetery of Sailly-Saillisel, Rancourt Necropolis (as mentioned, home of the intermediate sprint), the Museum of the Great War, the Longueval cemetery of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Delville Wood South African National Memorial, the Franco-British memorial at Thiepval and the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial being visited during the stage.

It was a rainy and windy day on this stage of the Tour. At the beginning of the race, Nicolas Edet and Pierre-Luc Périchon  escaped. Edet soon folded back to the bunch, leaving Périchon in the headwind alone. Meanwhile, crashes were occurring in the bunch, notably one that forced Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) out of the race after aggravating injuries sustained in the French National Road Race Championships. After some minor gaps, a definite split was caused by the crosswinds, catching out Ryder Hesjedal and 's riders Richie Porte and Peter Kennaugh. This group would ultimately come in 14' 15" in arrears.

Périchon was caught with 96 km to cover and nobody tried his luck from that point. A bunch sprint organized itself with all the main sprinters present. André Greipel of won it to bank his second victory at this Tour de France, with second place belonging to Peter Sagan  who made a late surge for the line. Mark Cavendish rounded off the podium. The "most combative" award was given to Michael Matthews, who fought on to finish the stage despite riding with two broken ribs. Tony Martin's overall lead was unchanged.

"It was quite an interesting sprint as no one of the sprinters had a real lead-out man in the last 400 metres", Greipel said after the stage. "So everybody had to time the sprint somehow and find the right position."

Stage 6

 * 9 July 2015 — Abbeville to Le Havre, 191.5 km

The stage departed from Abbeville and headed west to Dieppe, which was followed quickly by two category 4 climbs, the Côte de Dieppe and the Côte de Pourville-sur-Mer. The peloton then continued west along the English Channel coast to Saint-Valery-en-Caux, then on to Fécamp, which was followed by an intermediate sprint at Saint-Léonard. The race continued to Étretat, which was followed quickly by the category 4 climb of the Côte de Tilleul. The peloton continued south along the coast to Sainte-Adresse on the outskirts of Le Havre. This stage did not have a typical sprint finish, as there was an incline up to the finish line in Le Havre.

The day's breakaway was formed not too long after the start, and consisted of 's Perrig Quéméneur, ' Kenneth Vanbilsen and Daniel Teklehaimanot of. The peloton, recovering from the crashes in the previous stages, had a rather slow speed, and thus the trio of riders were allowed a lead which topped 12'30" before started pursuit. Teklehaimanot took the available points at the three climbs which meant he took the polka-dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification, becoming the first black African to do so. Towards the end, the breakaway split, with Vanbilsen trying an attack for the day's combativity award (it actually went to Quéméneur). Quéméneur and Teklehaimanot were caught with 10 km to go, whilst the  rider still had an advantage of 25". He was ultimately caught with 3 km to go and the peloton prepared for a finish.

The stage finished on a short incline (850 m at an average 7%), then there was 500 m of flat terrain to the line. With about 900 m to go, a crash occurred in the peloton, causing race leader Tony Martin and general classification favorite Vincenzo Nibali to fall. Zdeněk Štybar took advantage of this, as he jumped from the peloton amidst all the confusion and took a stage win, finishing two seconds ahead of the group. Peter Sagan was left in the chasing position behind, but refused to take on the workload as there were teams with more than one unit in the group. He finished second.

Štybar later said "I have mixed feelings after winning this stage because Tony Martin crashed". In the evening, it was announced that Martin suffered a broken collarbone and would be unable to start the next stage, as he was flying to Hamburg for surgery.

Stage 7

 * 10 July 2015 — Livarot to Fougères, 190.5 km

The riders departed from Livarot, the first time the commune was used for the start or finish of a stage, in another stage for the sprinters. The race quickly headed over the category 4 Côte de Canapville and on through Vimoutiers and Argentan, where an intermediate sprint took place. After heading south-west to Saint-Martin-des-Landes, the peloton then headed west through Lassay-les-Chateaux, Ambrières-les-Vallées and Gorron before heading into Fougères. After his crash the day before, the leader Tony Martin had to withdraw from the race, meaning no-one wore the yellow jersey in this stage. Before the stage, number one general classification rider Froome said: "Out of respect for Tony I would never have worn it in any case. That's not the way to get the yellow jersey, due to someone else's misfortunes." There was another non-starter, Greg Henderson of, because of two broken ribs.

The stage was disputed under good weather conditions. During the neutral zone before the start, Alberto Contador and Robert Gesink of went down on the asphalt but didn't sustain any injuries. Once the flag was dropped to start the race, five riders came through as the day's breakaway – the mountains classification leader Daniel Teklehaimanot, Kristijan Đurasek of, ' Luis Ángel Maté and two riders from the local team – Anthony Delaplace and Brice Feillu. Teklehaimanot took full points on the only categorised climb of the day. Meanwhile, and  heavily controlled the pace of the peloton, in an attempt for their sprinters to try and fight for the stage. Thus, the breakaway's lead only topped four minutes. Despite this, the five at the front proved very difficult to catch, as they were caught with only 11 km until the finish.

At the finish, Mark Cavendish, André Greipel, Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb all went for the final sprint, and were practically neck and neck until the finish, when Cavendish caught Greipel's slipstream and took his 26th success at the tour, and his first for nearly two years. Greipel managed second and Sagan took third. The 'Manx Missile', as Cavendish is known, dedicated the victory to his teammate Tony Martin, who was recuperating from a collarbone operation. Froome regained the yellow jersey. After the stage, it was announced that Luca Paolini had tested positive for cocaine and was excluded from the race.

Stage 8

 * 11 July 2015 — Rennes to Mûr-de-Bretagne, 181.5 km

The peloton headed out of Rennes with racing officially starting at Montgermont, heading north-west to Bécherel, west to Saint-Méen-le-Grand, and then north-west again to Plénée-Jugon. This was followed by the category 4 Col du Mont Bel-Air and an intermediate sprint at Moncontour. The race then headed south through Loudéac to Rohan and turned west to Neulliac. The peloton continued to Mûr-de-Bretagne, travelling through the commune before arriving at the final climb for the day. The category 3 climb of Mûr-de-Bretagne, up to the finish line, was 2 km at a gradient of 6.9%.

Four riders attacked at km 0 and became the day's breakaway. These riders were Pierre-Luc Périchon of, Bartosz Huzarski of , 's Sylvain Chavanel and Romain Sicard of. Their maximum lead reached four minutes before took up pursuit at the head of the peloton. At the intermediate sprint, a group of 17 riders went clear of the peloton. They joined the initial breakaway, before Huzarski attacked again, this time taking 's Lars Bak and 's Michał Gołaś with him. The lead of these riders reached 1'12". Huzarski (the recipient of the day's combativity award) gave up with 10 km to go, but Bak and Gołaś continued fighting. However, they only managed to last another 2 km before being brought back by the peloton.

At the Mûr-de-Bretagne, Froome led the peloton, but was unable to keep going for a stage victory, as Alexis Vuillermoz attacked with 800 m to go and managed to take the stage victory for himself It was the first French triumph in this year's Tour. He later said "After winning I thought about my dad who died three years ago. He was the one who got me interested in the Tour de France, he used to take my cousins and I to the side of the road to watch the Tour go past", said Vuillermoz. "I hope today he's proud of me." Dan Martin came in second position, after trying an attack but leaving it until too late. Nibali lost ten seconds to all GC contenders, and later said "I had a bad day. I felt good at the beginning of the stage but at the end, I couldn’t feel anything anymore, I didn’t have any legs anymore." Peter Sagan grabbed the green jersey by three points as André Greipel didn't feature in the finish.

After the stage, the UCI proceeded to randomly check five riders' bicycles for hidden motors as a part of the mandatory control efforts. All passed inspection as nothing was found.

Stage 9

 * 12 July 2015 — Vannes to Plumelec, 28 km team time trial (TTT)

There had not been a team time trial (TTT) this late into the Tour de France since 1982. TTT stages in the Tour usually take place in opening days because of the likelihood that all of the team's riders would still be participating. The teams started in the reverse order that they were placed in the team classification, with the exception of the team which included the general classification leader, which was Chris Froome's, who started last. In this stage, the teams had to have five riders crossing the finish line, and the time of this fifth cyclist was the one that counted. The teams departed from Vannes, heading north-east to the first time check at Lesneve on the outskirt of Saint-Avé, bearing north through Monterblanc and on to the second time check at Le Croiseau on the outskirt of Plaudren. The end of the stage provided a 1.7 km climb up the at an average gradient of 6.2%, before the finish in Plumelec.

were the first to start, but only had six riders left and put in the worst performance, with a time of 37'13". Simon Yates called it a "rest day" and told the press he did not go over 75% of his capabilities during the stage. The next team to start, beat them, with a time of 34'01". were the next leaders, after going 58" faster than the French team, before being beaten by Vincenzo Nibali's, who arrived in a time of 32'50". Twenty minutes later, Nairo Quintana's took the reins at the finish, before being beaten by, who were four seconds faster. Leader Chris Froome's, who struggled to maintain a five-men group together at the end of the stage, finished a mere second after the Americans, who took a stage win. had a chance to earn the yellow jersey for Peter Sagan, but instead came in fourth with a time deficit of 28 seconds on BMC. came in with a 1' 29" deficit, which could prove difficult to overcome for their leader Andrew Talansky, now sitting in 19th position in the overall classification at 4' 17". Froome kept the yellow jersey with an advantage of twelve seconds over Tejay van Garderen. Van Garderen later said "We knew we were on a really good ride", and "In a perfect world, we would have taken the stage and the yellow jersey. But we will take the stage win. Honestly, I couldn't be happier."

Rest day 1

 * 13 July 2015 — Pau

The riders transferred to Pau for the rest day. Ivan Basso of the team announced that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer and that he was withdrawing from the race. His road captain, Alberto Contador, was emotional when talking to the press and Basso received support from a number of people including Lance Armstrong. Basso made the announcement in English to the media: "I have a bad announcement to give to you guys. On stage 5, I had a really small crash but in the crash I touched my testicle on the saddle and for a few days, I felt a small pain. Yesterday we spoke with the doctor of the Tour de France and we decided to go to make a special analysis in the hospital and the examination gave me bad news. I have a small cancer in the left testicle."

About the race, race leader Chris Froome said: "This first week, the big thing was not to lose any time. So to gain quite substantial amounts of time, that is the dream scenario. I have my team to thank for that. They have been there every step of the way, after all these one-day Classics I couldn’t be in a better position."

Alberto Contador did not lament his time deficit: "We’ll see how everyone is in the mountains. I believe that a lot is still to happen in this Tour and everybody will have días malos, bad days. Hopefully we will have none", said the Spaniard. "This Tour will be won by regularity and I hope that this favours me."

Nairo Quintana of was sitting ninth on the general classification at 1' 59" and reflected: "The roster is still full, with a couple of crashes yet with no major complications, and performing really well, as everyone could see yesterday in the team time trial. I think that the Pyrenees, with Alejandro and all of them by my side, will be a good opportunity to turn things around in our favour."

Tejay van Garderen said about the mountains to come: "I don’t think my strength is going to be flying up the road and dropping people like Quintana and Contador, my strength is going to be my consistency", said the American. "In the Pyrenees I’m going to have to mark the guys who are important and take the opportunity if it's there."

Vincenzo Nibali of the squad was shocked by the news of his fellow countryman Basso's cancer. He nonetheless talked about the upcoming race in those terms: "I want to see if the real Nibali is around. More than anything, I want some answers for myself. I still haven’t felt as good as I did last year, I hope it happens starting from tomorrow (Tuesday). Will I attack? We’ll see.... If there's a chance, why not?"

Stage 10

 * 14 July 2015 — Tarbes to La Pierre-Saint-Martin, 167 km

Bastille Day featured the first mountainous stage of the 2015 Tour, departing from Tarbes, with racing officially starting at Bordères-sur-l'Échez. The peloton travelled west through Morlaàs, over the category 4 Côte de Bougarber to Mourenx, and then over the category 4 Côte de Vielleségure to Navarrenx. The peloton then headed south-west to Mauléon-Licharre, then south to a sprint at Trois-Villes and on to Tardets-Sorholus. The race then turned east and headed over the category 4 Côte de Montory to Arette, before turning south once again to begin the Hors catégorie 15.3 km climb up to La Pierre-Saint-Martin at 1610 m. The average gradient of this first major climb of the Tour is 7.4%.

Pierrick Fédrigo broke away first and was joined after 45 km of racing by Kenneth Vanbilsen. They amassed the points at the intermediate sprint, but the battle got heated after their passage with André Greipel winning the sprint. He would eventually take back the green jersey from Sagan. Shortly after the beginning of the final climb, the break was swept up by the leading group. The climb had barely started when polkadot jersey wearer Daniel Teklehaimanot was dropped, along with Kwiatkowski. Soon, Thibaut Pinot and Jean-Christophe Péraud, the third and second overall of last year's Tour respectively were distanced too.

A select group of twelve riders resisted with 10 km to cover, at which point Nibali was distanced. Chris Froome attacked with 6.4 km remaining, as there was only Nairo Quintana and teammate Richie Porte with him. He dropped them both with that acceleration, won the stage in solo fashion and put considerable time into all his general classification rivals. Porte was second, followed by Quintana at one minute and four seconds. 's Robert Gesink, who had attacked shortly after the beginning of the climb, reaped a fourth position. Tejay van Garderen finished tenth at 2' 30", Contador at 2' 51" and Nibali at 4' 25". Contador blamed the performance on respiratory problems. 's Daniel Teklehaimanot relinquished his polka dot jersey to Froome, although it was worn by Porte in the next stage as he is second in the mountains classification.

Stage 11

 * 15 July 2015 — Pau to Cauterets – Vallée de Saint-Savin, 188 km

This stage departed from Pau, heading south-east to Saint-Pé-de-Bigorre and then east through Lourdes. The peloton then headed over the category 3 Côte de Loucrup turning south-east before a sprint in Pouzac, riding through Bagnères-de-Bigorre, turning north-east to the category 4 Côte de Bagnères-de-Bigorre and then east to the category 3 Côte de Mauvezin. The race turned south at La Barthe-de-Neste heading to Arreau before facing the 12 km climb of the category 1 Col d'Aspin, with a 6.5% gradient ascending to 1490 m. The riders then descended into the valley at Sainte-Marie-de-Campan and began the Hors catégorie Col du Tourmalet, a 17.1 km climb, at a gradient of 7.3%, to a height of 2115 m, taking the eastern route through La Mongie. The first rider over the summit received the Souvenir Jacques Goddet. The race then descended through Luz-Saint-Sauveur to Pierrefitte-Nestalas to begin the category 3 Côte de Cauterets, a 6.4 km climb with a 5% gradient, before finishing in Cauterets itself.