Stage 15 - For U.S. Team Garmin, a Day of Pride, if not Glory

In today’s stage through the rolling valleys at the base of the Pyrénées, the peleton drove a relentless cadence as they rejected every breakaway for the first 90 minutes. Finally, after 60 Km, they relaxed their pace and allowed a group of 5 to escape (joined shortly by a sixth rider).

None of the six ranked high enough in the GC standings for Team Sky to care about them. The job of containing and catching the escapees fell to the sprint teams, if they wanted their sprinters to have a try for the stage victory. But the sprint teams were content to let Sky lead the peleton. As a result, the lead of the six attackers soon became insurmountable, and everyone else conceded the stage win. In fact, none of the sprinters even challenged Peter Sagan for the 9 mop-up green jersey points at the intermediate sprint.

For the peleton, the only remaining drama was a three-sprinter contest for 7^th place points at the finish line. Red Lanterne Tyler Farrar come to the front to challenge for those points, and earned a measure of pride for his U.S. Garmin team with a close finish behind Greipel and ahead of Sagan.

The six leaders, Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Nicki Soresen (SaxoBank), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Dreis Devenyns (Omega Pharma), American Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) and Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ), worked smoothly together to expand their lead, as they plotted their strategies to capture the victory. Dumoulin was recognized as the best sprinter, so the other 5 used early attacks to wear him down and drop him before the end.

With about 5 Km to go, Fedrigo launched a surprise attack, and only Vande Velde managed to catch up with him. Those two cooperated to preserve their lead until they rode safely under the 1Km-to-go arch, with Vande Velde riding in Fedrigo’s slipstream as they approached the end. Christian hoped to lauch an attack from that position, but Fedrigo launched first, and Vande Velde could only follow him across the line for second place. Glory for Fedrigo and for France. Pride for Vande Velde and for Garmin, a team with precious little to celebrate in this year’s Tour.

After stage 12, I noted that Goss had been relegated for swerving into Sagan’s line of travel at the final sprint, so that their finishing places and sprint points were reversed. But I failed to notice or note that Goss was also penalized 30 points for that error. So, instead of 4 points, it cost him a 34-point swing. (Thanks to faithful reader, son-in-law and star of many of my blog photos, Matt Jensen, for alerting me to this additional penalty.) No wonder Goss and his Orica GreenEdge team are demoralized and have lost their fire for contesting the sprint points in these last two stages.

Nan and Matt rolling through the rural valley roads below the Pyrénées--the exact kind of roads comprising today's 15th stage of the Tour de France.