The 19th stage of the Tour de France 2015 took place on July 24th, 2015. It led from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne over 138 kilometers to La Toussuire - Les Sybelles . There were a total of four mountain classifications, one of them in the second category, two in the first category and the Col de la Croix de Fer after 83 kilometers, one of the Hors Catégorie . The stage arrival in La Toussuire was a first category mountain finish. There was also an intermediate sprint after 42 kilometers in Épierre . The 19th stage counted as a high mountain stage. 161 riders started.
Only a few minutes after the start, some leading groups formed, which gradually came together to form a larger group of 26 drivers. Were represented, among others, Joaquim Rodríguez of the points, wanted to collect jerseys for the defense of the dotted, Jean-Christophe Péraud , Andrew Talansky and Pierre Rolland . Chris Froome's Sky team took over the follow-up work. It went uphill almost from the start, so that several attacks were launched in the group of favorites. Vincenzo Nibali was able to get into the leading group, Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde also tried to get away. The aggressive driving style meant that Chris Froome was now almost on his own, only his teammate Wouter Poels could still follow the pace. Rodríguez won the first mountain classification ahead of Steven Kruijswijk and Pierre Rolland. On the descent, the racing situation was confusing, the split field slowly came together again and various drivers were briefly in the lead. The leading group consisted of around 20 drivers and was about two minutes ahead of the field.
After the undisputed intermediate sprint, the next climb to the Col de la Croix de Fer was ahead of the drivers. There Pierre Rolland attacked from the top group, but the main field was still not driven particularly fast. It was only when Astana took over the leadership role that the pace increased, which immediately had an effect: Many drivers could no longer keep up with the pace and fell behind, leaving a group of nine favorites. Rolland was able to pull away in the front, the group of favorites now overtook some of his pursuers, including Rodríguez. When Chris Froome had to stop briefly because of a defect, Vincenzo Nibali attacked again and set off in pursuit of Rolland. He reached the ranking about a minute behind the Frenchman, third placed was Romain Bardet , who figured out his chances of getting the dotted jersey. In the short descent to the next ascent, Nibali drove very risky to make up ground on Rolland. He was about 40 seconds behind, Froome's group was about two minutes behind. Shortly after the mountain classification at Col du Mollard , Nibali had caught up with Rolland.
The top duo now made their way to the mountain arrival in La Toussuire (1st category) with a lead of 1:50 minutes . The chasing group consisted of the following drivers: Wouter Poels, Chris Froome (Sky), Rafał Majka , Roman Kreuziger , Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Romain Bardet (ag2r), Robert Gesink (Lotto NL-Jumbo), Rubén Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Bauke Mollema (Trek), Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Mathias Frank (IAM). On the climb, Nibali left Rolland and quickly drove over a minute on the French, who then fell back to the chasing group. There Nairo attacked Quintana, Froome followed, but could not catch up and was about 20 seconds behind the Colombian. In the front, Nibali kept his lead on Quintana and won the stage. Froome finished third, 30 seconds behind Quintana, reducing his lead in the overall standings to 2:38 minutes. 1:12 minutes behind Froome, the rest of the group with Bardet, Valverde and Contador crossed the finish line. For Bardet, the four mountain points gained in the final ascent meant the lead in the ranking for the dotted jersey.
Scoring
Intermediate sprint in Épierre after 42 km at 371 m
Michael Valgren (TCS): Task during the stage (illness)