Article by Todd Hofert

Chris Froome (Team Sky) soloed to a commanding victory on La-Pierre-Saint-Martin, crossing the finish line 59 seconds ahead of teammate, Richie Porte and 1 minute 4 seconds in front of third place, Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

While Froome played down his lead in post-race interviews, stating it was still a very long race, his performance increased his lead in the overall to 2 minutes 52 seconds over second place, Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) and by 3 minutes 9 seconds over Quintana.

Sky definitely put on quite the performance. I tried my best to stay with them. When it got too much for me, I tried to stay in my rhythm and focused on getting to the top. I don’t think today was my best day. But it wasn’t all bad. I am still keeping a good GC (general classification) position.

The first mountain day is always tricky. We have done almost two weeks without climbing any real mountains. So it can be quite a shock to the system, especially after a rest day. I feel like it should go better from here. I am definitely still happy about where we are sitting.”
– Tejay Van Garderen, BMC Racing

Stage 10 – Tarbes to La Pierre-Saint-Martin – 167km

It was Bastille Day in France today, the French National Day commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution with the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. And a Frenchman in the break on Bastille Day is as common as fireworks on Independence Day in the US. So it would be today with Pierrick Fédrigo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) FRA initiating a solo break just a few kilometers into the stage. A few kilometers later Kenneth Van Bilsen (Cofidis) BEL would launch a bid to bridge to the solo attacker. He would finally make contact with Fédrigo some 30km later and the two would ride out to a maximum gap of 14:16.

Coming out of the first rest day the first 100km or so of the stage to La Pierre-Saint-Martin was well suited to allow the riders to spin the legs back life. With just rolling terrain all of the way to the base of the final climb the riders could shake off the negative effects that so often occur during a rest day. The warm-up, however, would be short-lived as the hors categorie climb to the summit finish at La Pierre-Saint-Martin was looming on the horizon and there would be no hiding from it.

Movistar and Sky would take up the primary responsibilities of marshaling the two-man break. Kenneth Van Bilsen would collect the points over all three of the category 4 climbs that led the way to La Pierre.

The intermediate sprint was won by Pierrick Fédrigo without being contested by Van Bilsen an agreement likely formed giving Van Bilsen the mountain points on offer thus far. The peloton would follow through the sprint point some 8 minutes later with Andre Greipel taking the third place points followed by Mark Cavendish and John Degenkolb. Peter Sagan would finish seventh and with that Greipel would reclaim the Green Jersey.

The teams of the GC contenders would arrive at the base of the climb licking their lips for the first real opportunity to do what they do best. Movistar would come to the front to set a yeoman’s pace not hiding their cards to be played for Nairo Quintana. Sky was well represented as was Tinkoff Saxo and Astana. Surprisingly Tejay Van Garderen was isolated almost immediately. This could spell trouble for him over the long haul. Andrew Talansky could also be seen popping off the back a victim of his own team’s fervor.

Robert Gesink would launch a long-range sortie with about 12km remaining. That move would be reeled in a few kilometers up the climb just prior to a searing attack by Chris Froome with 6.3km to go. No one was able to follow. Froome would continue to open the gap with only Nairo Quintana able to mount a chase. His efforts would fail as well.

At the line, Chris Froome would have the 2015 Tour de France by the throat. He would finish a minute ahead of teammate Richie Porte and just over a minute ahead of Nairo Quintana. Robert Gesink with an impressive ride up the final climb would grab fourth place vaulting himself up into 8th on the general classification. Alejandro Valverde would round out the top five.

The big losers of the day would be Tejay Van Garderen giving up 2:40 to Froome, Alberto Contador giving up 3:01 and Vincenzo Nibali virtually imploding early on giving up over four and a half minutes to the stage winner. He now sits in tenth almost 7 minutes down.

For a man who said he would ride defensively today, it will be interesting to see how he approaches the next two stages. Short of misfortune has the Tour been decided on just the first climb of the race?

I just thought instead of riding a defensive race, ‘come on guys let’s push on here. Some guys are in trouble let’s take advantage of that.’ I asked the guys to push on a bit. The legs felt good so I think it worked out just to plan.

Now we’re just going to have to take it on a daily basis. I’m in such a great position now and with such team around me. Guys like Richie Porte coming second, G just a few places back in fifth – it just shows the caliber of riders I’ve got supporting me. Hopefully, now we can just ride a defensive race. Let’s see – there’s still a very long way to go to Paris but of course, I’m ecstatic about how it went today.

When I heard on the radio it was like music to the ears, especially this early in the race. There are some really big time gaps today which I’m quite surprised about, seeing as we only had the one climb on the final. The one thing that comes to mind for me is that maybe some of the guys didn’t look after themselves quite that well through the rest day yesterday, or maybe came out of the rest day feeling quite heavy. My guys were great. It was a dream day for us.”
– Chris Froome, Team Sky

Stage 10
Date: 14 July, 2015
Start:  Tarbes
Finish: La Pierre-Saint-Martin
Distance: 167 km

Tour de France 2015 Stage 10 Top 10

1. Christopher Froome (GBR) #31
   Team Sky 4h 22′ 07″
2. Richie Porte (AUS) #35
   Team Sky + :59
3. Nairo Quintana (COL) #51
   Movistar + 1:04
4. Robert Gesink (NED) #131
   Team LottoNL-Jumbo + 1:33
5. Alejandro Valverde (ESP) #59
   Movistar + 2:01
6. Geraint Thomas (GBR) #39
   Team Sky + 2:01
7. Adam Yates (GBR) #108
   Orica GreenEDGE + 2:04
8. Pierre Rolland (FRA) #121
   Team Europcar + 2:04
9. Tony Gallopin (FRA) #71
   Lotto Soudal + 2:22
10. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) #61
    BMC Racing + 2:30

Tour de France 2015 General Classification Top 10 after Stage 10

1. Christopher Froome (GBR) #31
   Team Sky 35h 56′ 09″
2. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) #61
   BMC Racing + 2:52
3. Nairo Quintana (COL) #51
   Movistar + 3:09
4. Alejandro Valverde (ESP) #59
   Movistar + 4:01
5. Geraint Thomas (GBR) #39
   Team Sky + 4:03
6. Alberto Contador (ESP) #41
   Tinkoff-Saxo + 4:04
7. Tony Gallopin (FRA) #71
   Lotto Soudal + 4:33
8. Robert Gesink (NED) #131
   Team LottoNL-Jumbo + 4:35
9. Warren Barguil (FRA) #82
   Team Giant-Alpecin + 6:12
10. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) #1
    Astana Pro Team + 6:57

Tour de France 2015 Jerseys after Stage 10

Yellow (Overall leader): Chris Froome, Team Sky
Green (Points): André Greipel, Lotto Soudal
Polka-dot (KOM):Chris Froome, Team Sky
Worn by: Richie Porte, Team Sky
White (Best Young Rider): Nairo Quintana, Movistar

Tour de France 2015 Stage 10 route

Tour de France 2015 Stage 10 route map

Tour de France 2015 Stage 10 profile

Tour de France 2015 Stage 10 climbs

Maps courtesy of Le Tour de France / © A.S.O.

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