Join us for live streaming online coverage of all the action on Stage 15 of the Tour de France 2012.
Stage 15 is a hilly 158.5 km stage that goes from Samatan to Pau, where the peloton will have a rest day tomorrow.
Today's stage has rolling hills through most of the stage until the intermediate sprint points which occur with 57 km to go.
Following the sprint points, the riders climb over three consecutive categorized climbs including the Category 4 Cote de Lahitte Toupiere, the Categoy 3 Cote de Simacourbe, and the Category 4 Cote de Monassut Audiracq. These climbs have their summits at 51.5 km to go, 35 km to go, and 29.5 km to go, respectively.
It is a relatively easy day for the peloton, with a small breakaway likely to form to start the stage, but the peloton should stay together through the short climbs.
It will be interesting to see if any of the other sprinters will challenge the green-jersey point competition lead of Peter Sagan (Liquigas). Sagan opened a dominant lead in the competition yesterday by getting in the breakaway and now leads second-place Andrew Greipel by 97 points.
Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Team Sky will want to control the peloton so that none of the other GC challengers like Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), Cadel Evans (BMC), or Jurgen Van Den Broek (Lotto) even think about attacking on a stage like today.
The GC contenders will just want to stay safe at the front of the peloton in the run up to the finish in order to avoid crashes and keep their positions.
The final kilometers should see a catch of the breakaway and may also see late attacks, but conclude on a bunch sprint.
Look for pure sprinters like Mark Cavendish (Sky), Andrew Greipel (Lotto), Matthew Goss (Orica), and Sagan to duke it out for the fastest man to the line.
Keep your browser tuned in here for live coverage of Stage 15.
*** Stage 15 has ended, please click here for the latest live coverage of the Tour de France: /world-others/
