Pezcyclingnews: Tour’15: Hat-trick For Greipel In Valence!

Race Report Stage 15: As sprint wins go, this was as cool and as gutsy as they get. Lotto Soudal played a blinder, putting total faith in Andre Greipel and the German fastman powered to a third stage win on the 2015 Tour. We had a great breakaway group, but with so little left for the sprinters, their teams wouldn’t countenance blowing a chance like today’s finish.Greipel got through the all-important last corner in the perfect position, on the barriers and diving for the line with everyone else having to come around. Degenkolb, Kristoff and Sagan all ran out of road in a cracking sprint.How it went down: From Mende, it’s the sprinters’ penultimate chance on this year’s Tour route, with a relatively benign 183-kilometer jaunt. It’s climbing straightaway, though, up the 3rd-category Cote de Badaroux: Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka) and Astana’s Lieuwe Westra are the 1-2 over the top.A monster near-30 rider group eventually gets away before splintering into rival factions. Of the initial breakout, only nine retain their freedom as the peloton gives up the immediate chase. They are the Tinkoff-Saxo duo of Michael Rogers and Peter Sagan; FDJ.fr’s Thibaut Pinot; Orica-GreenEDGE’s Adam Yates; Lars Bak for Lotto-Soudal; Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin); Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) and the Etixx – Quick-Step pairing of Matteo Trentin and Michal Kwiatkowski.It’s one of the most powerful and star-studded escapes since Steve MacQueen, James Garner and friends decided that Stalag Luft III wasn’t to their liking. But… who will end up being today’s ‘Cooler King’...

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