page_title: 2015 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11
section_title: Stage 7
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11 / Stage 7
caption_attribution_description: ploegenpresentatie Tour de France 2015 Utrecht
context_page_description: The 2015 Tour de France was the 102nd edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour started in Utrecht, Netherlands on 4 July and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 26 July. On 13 July, between stages nine and ten there was a rest day in Pau.
context_section_description: 10 July 2015 — Livarot to Fougères, 190.5 km (118 mi)
  The riders departed from Livarot, the first time the commune was used for the start or finish of a stage, in another stage for the sprinters. The race quickly headed over the category 4 Côte de Canapville and on through Vimoutiers and Argentan, where an intermediate sprint took place. After heading south-west to Saint-Martin-des-Landes, the peloton then headed west through Lassay-les-Chateaux, Ambrières-les-Vallées and Gorron before heading into Fougeres. After his crash the day before, the leader Tony Martin had to withdraw from the race, meaning no-one wore the yellow jersey in this stage. Before the stage, number one general classification rider Froome said: "Out of respect for Tony I would never have worn it in any case. That's not the way to get the yellow jersey, due to someone else's misfortunes." There was another non-starter, Greg Henderson of Lotto–Soudal, because of two broken ribs.
  The stage was disputed under good weather conditions. During the neutral zone before the start, Alberto Contador and Robert Gesink of LottoNL–Jumbo went down on the asphalt but didn't sustain any injuries. Once the flag was dropped to start the race, five riders came through as the day's breakaway – the mountains classification leader Daniel Teklehaimanot, Kristijan Đurasek of Lampre–Merida, Cofidis' Luis Ángel Maté and two riders from the local Bretagne–Séché Environnement team – Anthony Delaplace and Brice Feillu. Teklehaimanot took full points on the only categorised climb of the day. Meanwhile, Lotto–Soudal and Etixx–Quick-Step heavily controlled the pace of the peloton, in an attempt for their sprinters to try and fight for the stage. Thus, the breakaway's lead only topped four minutes. Despite this, the five at the front proved very difficult to catch, as they were caught with only 11 km (7 mi) until the finish.
  At the finish, Mark Cavendish, André Greipel, Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb all went for the final sprint, and were practically neck and neck until the finish, when Cavendish caught Greipel's slipstream and took his 26th success at the tour, and his first for nearly two years. Greipel managed second and Sagan took third. The 'Manx Missile', as Cavendish is known, dedicated the victory to his teammate Tony Martin, who was recuperating from a collarbone operation.  Froome regained the yellow jersey.  After the stage, it was announced that Luca Paolini (Team Katusha) had tested positive for cocaine and was excluded from the race.
caption: Etixx–Quick-Step's Mark Cavendish, pictured here at the team presentation, won stage six's bunch sprint.
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