Tour de France Stage 15 Results: Alberto Contador Takes Yellow Jersey

The stalemate between yellow jersey holder Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador has finally been broken—sadly as the result of a mechanical failure rather than superior physical ability.

The 187 km ride from Pamieres to Baneres-de-Luchon saw a handful of lower category climbs before the pack hit the massive Port de Bales.

For the record, Thomas Voeckler was part of the initial breakaway, attacked on the big climb, and carried on for a tremendous victory for the Frenchman from Bbox. It was a terrific ride and a tremendous victory, but it will be lost in the other happenings of the day.

As the main peloton approach the summit of the Port de Bales, the familiar pattern of the last few days emerged of attack and counter-attack with no one gaining a decisive advantage. The peloton was whittled down to the top five riders of the Tour—Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), Alberto Contador (Astana), Sammy Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Denis Menchov (Rabobank), and Jurgen van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

But then everything changed. Schleck attacked hard about three km from the summit of the climb and looked to be opening a gap before disaster struck. Schleck’s chain jammed, stopping him dead. As he leaped off to fix the problem, Contador attacked, taking the other three riders with him and leaving Schleck stranded at the side of the road.

Schleck was able to sort his chain out, but he had lost about 30 seconds, which he was unable to recover. He did, however, pass a number of brilliant riders so quickly as to make them look like amateurs.

The descent off the mountain was terrifying, with Contador’s group desperate to maintain their lead and Schleck throwing caution to the wind in a vain attempt to catch up.

The debate will rage as to whether Contador should have waited or backed off from his attack. Traditionally, riders will not take advantage of a mechanical fault or a fall to press home an attack. We saw Fabian Cancellara pull the peloton up to wait for fallen riders on Stage Two.

It would have been nice to see Contador show some sportsmanship and back off the attack. He may not have known about why Schleck slowed immediately, but the team communication is good enough for him to have got the message reasonably quickly.

Schleck is now riding angry. He will feel that he has been wronged and will do everything in his ability to make up the time. Containing and channeling that anger will be a challenge for team management.

Contador inherits the yellow jersey, leading by eight seconds, but also becomes the marked man. He was booed on the podium when collecting his jersey, which cannot have been pleasant, but he has to live with the consequences of his actions, and there will be many who believe that he acted unfairly.

There is still a long way to go and some serious climbs over the next couple of days, and there is plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong.

He had better hope that misfortune doesn’t befall him. He won’t get much sympathy.

Standings after Stage 15

1.    CONTADOR A.            72h 50' 42"
2.    SCHLECK A.                00' 08"
3.    SANCHEZ S.               02' 00"
4.    MENCHOV D.              02' 13"
5.    VAN DEN BROECK J.     03' 39"
6.    GESINK R                   05' 01"
7.    LEIPHEIMER L.            05' 25"
8.    RODRIGUEZ OLIVER J.  05' 45"
9.    VINOKOUROV A.          07' 12"
10.   HESJEDAL R.            07' 51"