The 15th stage of the Tour de France 2013 took place on July 14, 2013. It led from Givors to Mont Ventoux and at 242.5 km is the longest stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France. In the course of the stage there was a mountain classification of honor, one of the third and three of the fourth category and a sprint classification. This means that the fifteenth stage counts as a high mountain stage.
After several escape attempts countered by the peloton , Thomas De Gendt was the first to pull away from the field after almost 20 kilometers and thus won the first mountain classification before the peloton caught up with him again. The second mountain classification that followed shortly afterwards was secured by Pierre Rolland, the man in the dotted jersey . After about 40 kilometers, a group of ten around sprinter Peter Sagan was able to pull away . From this Julien El-Farès secured the third mountain classification in the fourth category. After the outliers had a nine-minute lead in the meantime, the peloton worked their way up again, so that in the fourth mountain classification, which Jérémy Roy secured ahead of Christophe Riblon , only three minutes remained. Until shortly after the intermediate sprint , which Sagan used to extend his lead in the fight for the green jersey , the breakaway group held a lead of between three and four minutes. After that, the Sky team around overall leader Chris Froome took care of the follow-up work, so the pace was high. This led to Sagan's falling back and Rolland's dropping out of the peloton.
At the foot of Mont Ventoux , Sylvain Chavanel launched an attack from the leading group. Christophe Riblon and Markel Irízar followed at a distance, the rest of the outliers were swallowed by the peloton at the beginning of the climb. Shortly afterwards Jan Bakelants and Mikel Nieve pulled away from the field to follow Chavanel, Irízar fell back into the main field. After an attack by Nairo Quintana , Chavanel and Bakelants were taken off the field, while Nieve and Quintana led the field. After Peter Kennaugh took over the first part of the mountain for the man in yellow, Chris Froome, he had a teammate at his side with Richie Porte ten kilometers from the finish . In the first part of the climb up to Mont Ventoux, Cadel Evans and the sprinters fell out of the main field . After Portes stepped up the pace a few times, all the riders from the group of around 20 around Maillot Jaune, except for Porte and Froome, and the Spaniard Alberto Contador , including Bauke Mollema , Laurens ten Dam , Michał Kwiatkowski , Andrew Talansky , Alejandro Valverde , Jakob Fuglsang and Roman Kreuziger . Almost seven kilometers from the finish, Froome pulled away from Contador and Helfer Porte and set off in pursuit of Quintana and Nieve.
Shortly thereafter, Froome caught up with Quintana, who was able to stay on the Brit's rear wheel . Behind them followed Nieve and Contador, then the field around the other well-placed class drivers. After a few failed attacks, Froome was able to step up the pace again just under a kilometer before the mountain finish and shake Quintana off. Froome was almost 30 seconds ahead of Quintana, who crossed the finish line in second. Behind them followed Nieve and Joaquim Rodríguez, who had come up the mountain . After that, the pursuers Froomes Kreuziger, Contador, Fuglsang, Mollema and ten Dam crossed the finish line at short intervals. All other drivers were more than two minutes behind at the finish. For most combative rider on was National Day of Frenchman Chavanel selected while Froome not only expand their lead in the overall standings to more than four to Mollema, but could also take on the climb of the collapse in Rolland. In the junior class , Quintana was able to regain the lead from Kwiatkowski while Sagan was still able to drive in green. Saxo-Tinkoff asserted itself as the best team .
