Froome retains yellow jersey as Mollema takes Tour stage 15
LE PUY-EN-VELAY: Chris Froome kept the leader’s yellow jersey despite breaking a wheel as Bauke Mollema won the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday in a solo breakaway.
Diego Ulissi was second at the end of the 189.5km mountainous stage from LaissacSeverac l’Eglise in the Massif Central ahead of Tony Gallopin in third.
Reigning champion Froome had to survive a worrying moment when he suffered a mechanical problem in the last 50km that saw him drop 50 seconds behind his main rivals as he had to take a wheel from teammate Michal Kwiatkowski to continue.
With Romain Bardet’s AG2R team pushing the pace, a mad 20km chase ensued as Mikel Nieve, Vasil Kiryienka and Sergio Henao helped pace Froome back to the group, and the three-time champion made contact 3km before the summit of the firstcategory col de Peyra Taillade, just over 30km from the finish.
“AG2R did their race, they went quickly up the climb but just before the climb I had a problem with my rear wheel — it was broken and I had to change it,” Froome told French television.
“My team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski stopped and gave me his wheel because the team car was a long way away.
“We did the maximum to get back to the head of race. Again thanks to my friends and team-mates, you can see it here [on the TV] Sergio Henao and Mikel Nieve did everything to get back to the front of the race, and Mikel Landa as well who waited for me at the top.”
The 32-year-old Briton crossed the line alongside most of his main rivals to maintain his 18-second lead over Italian Fabio Aru, with Romain Bardet of France third at 23sec and Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran fourth at 29sec.
And he admitted he was relieved to hold onto the yellow jersey.
“It was a stressful moment, of course. I thought I might not be able to get back to the front,” said Froome.
The big loser of the day was Colombia’s Nairo Quintana who dropped from eighth to 11th.