Patano wins stage
July 17, 2016
Stage 15 was a 160-kilometer endurance test from Bourg-en Brisse to Culoz in the Jura Mountains that featured no fewer than six climbs, including one of the highest category. So a lot could go wrong, especially for the man with the inside track on winning the 2016 Tour.
Some thirty riders broke away from the pack on the first ascent around 20 kilomteres from the starting line. But by the final climb, that group had been winnowed down to two: Pantano and Rafal Majka of Poland.
They were joined by Switzerland's Sebastien Reichenbach, but he was left behind on the final descent. Pantano and Majka were both hesitant about taking the lead over the concluding meters, but in the end it was the Colombian securing his first-ever Tour stage victory. The winning time was 4 hours, 24 minutes and 49 seconds.
Chris Froome finished roughly three minutes off that pace and maintained his overall lead of 1:47 over Dutch rider Bauke Mollema. Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Vaplverde are third, fourth and fifth. American Tejay van Garderen lost ground - any hopes he may have had of winning the event are fading.
The tour continues on Monday with a trip to Bern, Switzerland.