ANOTHER DAY
Monday 16 July / Samatan to Pau, 159km
ROUTE/ A largely flat and short ride to Pau, with a bunch sprint expected at the finish.
THE CHALLENGE/ To remain unscathed and race quietly before two massive stages in the Pyrenees.
HOW IT UNFOLDED/ After several failed early breakaways, Pierrick Fédrigo consolidated his role in a six-man party that escaped at the 70km mark by staying clear to take victory in Stage 15. Christian Vande Velde and Fédrigo charged clear of Thomas Voeckler, Dries Devenyns, Samuel Dumoulin and Nicki Sorensen with five kilometres remaining and the Frenchman – who won in Pau in 2010 – proved unbeatable in the sprint.
At one stage it appeared that Team Sky with Mark Cavendish or Lotto with André Greipel would chase them down, but instead the peloton was happy to let the gap grow and it was left to the escapees to tussle for the stage win.
Wiggins and the peloton finished almost 12 minutes behind, but the Team Sky leader kept his overall lead of two minutes and five seconds over team mate Chris Froome. Nicknamed ‘Le Gentleman’ by the French media for his part in neutralising the race after the previous day’s sabotage, Wiggins enjoyed a welcome soporific ride after suffering an early puncture.
Off the road, Team Sky continued to be questioned about relations within the team, particularly between Froome and Cavendish. ‘We are first and second on GC so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work that out,’ responded Wiggins, when asked if it would be more difficult to win if Froome were riding for another team. ‘He’s my team mate and we’ll keep it like that.’
Froome, too, offered assurance: ‘Relations within the team are fine. A lot of things have been taken out of context. There is no bad blood in the team. We are still here with the same goal. There’s nothing wrong with that.’
Of Cavendish, Wiggins said: ‘Mark has been fantastic these last two and a half weeks. He’s been so committed to my cause – to the yellow jersey – and he’s a great champion and a great friend … We’ve seen him going back for bottles and yesterday he tried really hard to get over that first climb with us. He’s been an absolute gentleman. There is still the stage to Paris for him and we are going to lay it down in Paris for him and try and get him the win there.’
The riders were ready for a well-earned rest day, but Wiggins acknowledges there’s plenty to do in the remaining five days. ‘I always think if you start looking too far ahead, you forget what’s in front of you.’
STAGE 15 RESULT:
Winner. Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra); FDJ; 03h 40’ 15”
2. Christian Vande Velde (US); Garmin
3. Thomas Vœckler (Fra); Europcar; @ 12”
OVERALL STANDINGS:
1. Bradley Wiggins (GB); Team Sky; 68h 33’ 21”
2. Chris Froome (GB); Team Sky; @ 2’05”
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita); Liquigas; @ 2’23
‘I don’t think it is down to us to do all the work at the moment with the Pyrenees coming up. It makes sense for us to conserve our energy a little bit or share the workload. But the other teams don’t want to share the work, so we conserved our energy.’
Dave Brailsford