Tour De France 2015: Stage 15 Route, Live Stream and TV Coverage

Rob BlanchetteJul 18, 2015

Chris Froome looks to tighten his grip on the Tour de France on Sunday—as the world's most famous cycling race enters Stage 15.

The competition begins in Mende, heading north-east to the finish line in Valence, some 183 kilometres away.

Froome leads the overall classification by three minutes and 10 seconds, with Movistar's Nairo Quintana his closest rival. The central protagonists of the Tour have been unable to keep up with the Team Sky kingpin's pace, and a second career title is within the British rider's grasp.

Single-minded Froome Won't Be Stopped

Christophe Ena/Associated Press

The performance of Chris Froome on this Tour has been of no surprise to cycling fans, but the emphatic manner and power of his lead has left many scratching their heads.

Froome has blown away his competition over the past 14 stages and the Brit looks certain to be riding into Paris to collect his second title in the historic race.

The Team Sky leader has accumulated more than a three-minute lead over a world-class field, once again triggering questions about the credibility of the sport.

The most famous drugs cheat in cycling history has also passed comment—Lance Armstrong has shrugged his shoulders in addressing whether Froome is clean or not:

Armstrong's comments—whether innocent or loaded—came before an alleged attack on Froome on Stage 14. The race leader has claimed a member of the public threw urine at him at the 50-kilometre point.

Froome said, per BBC Sport: "Unfortunately, someone threw a cup of urine into my face and shouted 'doper,' which is extremely wrong on so many different levels."

In the rider's interview with ITV4 (h/t BBC Sport), Froome defended his reputation and criticised the media's role in the thinking of the general public:

"
A lot of the reporting on the race has been very irresponsible—the individuals know who they are. We have had some fantastic support, we've seen a great number of fans in the race and a lot of the media has been fantastic. This is what I've worked all year for and nothing is going to take that away.
"

Froome also let his disappointment be known on Twitter, taking to his social media account to profess his dismay—as Steve Cummings collected the stage win:

Matt Slater of BBC Sport reinforced Froome's thoughts and words, aiming his opinion and comments at the home nation's reporting of events:

"
French newspapers, radio shows and TV programmes have openly questioned whether Froome is clean, usually citing his poor early record in Grand Tours as evidence and the US Postal-like control of the race that Team Sky has exerted—US Postal being Lance Armstrong's team
The fact that some of this "debate" is being generated by former dopers turned Tour pundits, such as Laurent Jalabert and Michael Rasmussen, has not raised the eyebrows it should. Team Sky are furious about this, blaming this commentary for creating the increasingly poisonous atmosphere.
"

Laurent Cipriani/Associated Press

It is disappointing that Froome needs to defend his record so vehemently, but this is the nature of cycling in the modern era. The Brit has worked so hard to climb from the shadow of Sir Bradley Wiggins, and his superiority should be testament to his hard work, and not the generator of rumour and lies.

Stage 15 should be well within Froome's attacking capabilities after two dramatic days of climbing. The 183-kilometre trek provides has plenty of downhill racing, per CycleVlog:

"
COUNTDOWN TOUR, 7 DAYS TO GO. Stage 15: Mende → Valence (183 km) #TDF http://t.co/q7x7ZfK4MT pic.twitter.com/gRrsTsQf92
— CycleVlog (@cycle_vlog) June 27, 2015"

The tour is certainly Froome's to lose, with no one setting the standards to catch him. It appears it is now a race for second place as the pack shuffles itself to line up behind the Sky rider.

Froome is a classical cyclist and you can see the pain on his face with every battle and climb. Cycling has thrown up the biggest surprises, over decades of cheating, but the British rider has become a force of nature due to his motivation and endurance.

His race to the front of the queue on the grand tours has been a steady one, and he has reached a standard that fans should be proud of.