As we say goodbye to the final rest day of The Tour at Carcassonne and head off on stage 16, let’s take a look back at the last few day’s events, reaching a climax at the end of stage 15.

The race leader goes unchanged still, as Italian Vincenzo leads the way with a whopping lead time of 4 minutes and 37 seconds. This lead is sizeable to say the least, and is leaving the cycling world in shock, awe and admiration.

The Telegraph said:

‘No one is going to catch Nibali, though. Not unless the Italian falls or suffers some catastrophic bad luck. His lead of 4min37sec over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is now the biggest after 14 stages since 2001 when Lance Armstrong led Jan Ulrich by 5min 5sec.’

VC

Photo from Cycling Weekly.

We then got the news that Simon Yates had been withdrawn after 15 stages of the Tour de France. This means that all but one British rider have been outed of the event, leaving only Sky’s Geraint Thomas left in the race.

Simon Yates: out. Photo: rcuk

Simon Yates: out. Photo: RCUK

 

Yates told RCUK:

“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity with the start in Yorkshire,” said Yates. “Almost in my home training base basically and it’s something I will never forget for the rest of my life.[…] It’s one of those things that you really take on board and it helps you for the future so I think it was just another great opportunity and I’m looking forward to being back [next year]”

 

Stage 15 – The results

 

1 Vincenzo Nibali
2 Alejandro Valverde
3 Romain Bardet
4 Thibaut Pinot
5 Tejay van Garderen
6 Jean-Christophe Peraud
7 Bauke Mollema
8 Leopold Konig
9 Laurens ten Dam
10 Pierre Rolland

Check back for more Tour de France 2014 coverage here at ProBikeKit



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