The real race was behind the leaders, as Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck and Christian Vande Velde fought for the yellow jersey and standing in the general classification.
At the end of the day, Frank Schleck had the yellow jersey and overall lead, Cadel Evans dropped to third, and Christian Vande Velde dropped to fifth, with a rest day and then two more brutal mountain climbs ahead.
Two Mountains to Climb
Stage Fifteen was one for the climbers: starting in Embrun, the first fifteen km of the 183 km stage were fairly level; the next fifty-four climbed up to the huge 2744 meter Hors Categorie Col d’Agnel. The next 54 km were a steep and dangerous descent, followed by fifty km of relatively level road, with a short steep Cat Three climb and then a twisting 20 km Cat One climb to a mountaintop finish in the Alpine skiing town of Prato Nevoso.
Overall leader Cadel Evans described the end of the stage: “I know the climb to the finish in Prato Nevoso. It’s hard … but I think we’ll see a group of riders arrive at the finish together.” Evans led the field by a single second, a lead he had maintained since Stage Ten.
Team Columbia sprinter a four-Stage winner Mark Cavendish dropped from the Tour overnight, probably saving himself for the upcoming Olympics.
The stage started in terrible conditions, cold and rainy, making the climbing that much more unpleasant and the descent hugely more dangerous.
Ups and Downs of the Col Agnel
The first effective attack of the stage came from Egoi Martinez (Euskatel Euskadie), Jose Luis Arrieta (AG2R), and Danny Pate (Garmin Chipotle), joined after a few km by Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole). This group opened a three-minute lead by the start of the climb proper.
