page_title: 2015 Tour de France
section_title: Pyrenees and Massif Central
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Tour de France / Race overview / Pyrenees and Massif Central
caption_attribution_description: 210 sagan-bus
context_page_description: The 2015 Tour de France was the 102nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 3,360.3 km-long race consisted of 21 stages, starting on 4 July in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and concluding on 26 July with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris. A total of 198 riders from 22 teams entered the race. The overall general classification was won by Chris Froome of Team Sky, with the second and third places taken by Movistar Team riders Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, respectively.
  BMC Racing Team's Rohan Dennis won the first stage to take the general classification leader's yellow jersey. Trek Factory Racing rider Fabian Cancellara claimed it on the second, only to lose it after crashing out on the following stage. This put Froome in the lead, after the Tour's first uphill finish. He lost the position to Etixx–Quick-Step's Tony Martin at the end of the fourth stage, but Martin's withdrawal from the race after a crash at the end of the sixth stage put Froome back into the lead. He extended this lead during the stages in the Pyrenees and defended it successfully against attacks from Quintana during the final stages that took place in the Alps.
context_section_description: Stage ten was the race's first arrival at altitude with the finish at La Pierre Saint-Martin in the Pyrenees. The day's breakaway was caught and passed on the final climb by a select group. Froome attacked with 6.4 km (4 mi) remaining to take the win, with teammate Richie Porte and Quintana a minute in arrears. The stage saw time gaps open up across the general classification leaders. The biggest loser was Nibali, who came in twenty-first, over four minutes behind Froome, who increased his lead to second placed Tejay van Garderen to two minutes and fifty-two seconds. Froome took the polka dot jersey and Greipel the green. Stage eleven was another mountainous stage; it was won by Rafał Majka (Tinkoff–Saxo), who was part of the early breakaway and attacked on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. He soloed across the line in Cauterets one minute ahead of second-placed Dan Martin (Cannondale–Garmin). The green jersey returned to Sagan. Rodríguez gained his second victory of the race on stage twelve; he was part of an early twenty-two rider breakaway that reached the final climb to Plateau de Beille. Froome kept his lead intact.
  Stage thirteen saw the escapees being brought inside the one kilometer to go marker (known as the flamme rouge). Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing Team took the uphill victory ahead of the chasing Sagan. On stage fourteen, a twenty-four rider breakaway reached the final climb, the Côte de la Croix Neuve. After the breakaway had fractured, Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet led over the summit, before Steve Cummings of MTN–Qhubeka overtook them to take the victory at Brenoux Airport on the plateau above Mende. Sagan was part of the breakaway, amassing maximum points at the intermediate sprint. Over four minutes after Cummings had finished, Froome outsprinted Quintana while the other general classification favourites were slightly distanced. Quintana moved into second place overall, displacing Van Garderen. Stage fifteen had for principal difficulty the Col de l'Escrinet climb, which saw most of the sprinters succeeding at passing the climb in the lead group, with the notable exception of Cavendish. Greipel won his third stage of the Tour, followed by John Degenkolb and Alexander Kristoff, respectively. On the next stage, featuring the Col de Manse as the final climb, Rubén Plaza (Lampre–Merida) escaped the leading group of breakaway riders on the ascent. Sagan chased him down the descent, but to no avail as Plaza soloed to victory in Gap. The next day was the second rest day, spent in Gap.
caption: Tinkoff–Saxo's Peter Sagan (pictured in stage nineteen) held the green jersey from the end of stage eleven to the end of the Tour, claiming his fourth consecutive points classification title.
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