Magnus Cort Nielsen Gets Us Under 1%!

It was another great stage today with a trio sprinting for the win.  Rafał Majka of Poland, who is a great mountain climber, was out front for a good bit of the race, but a group of seven riders caught him.  Check out the screen capture I got as Majka was about to be caught (click on image for a larger view).

It's really tough for a lone rider to outpace a group of seven.  Those guys in pursuit are constantly swapping out the lead cyclist, thus saving energy for the following cyclists.  Drafting is a huge advantage the group had that Majka didn't have.

Majka ended up finishing eighth, meaning all seven pursuing riders finished ahead of him.  The trio of Magnus Cort Nielsen, Ion Izagirre Insausti, and Bauke Mollema broke away from the group of eight and sprinted for the stage win.  It was the Dane who took the stage.  Does Nielsen look happy as he crossed the finish line? (click on image for a larger view)

Izagirre was second and Mollema was third.  Check out how our prediction fared.

• Stage 15:  4h 25' 52" (actual), 4h 28' 09" (prediction), 02' 17" slow (0.86% error)

Oh, I love being under 1%!  Nielsen averaged 40.96 kph (25.45 mph) today.  But you see in the above image that the final sprint had the cyclists at 51 kph (32 mph) as they reached the finish line.

Riders will stay in Carcassonne for tomorrow's rest day.  Tuesday's 218-km (135-mi) Stage 16 takes riders from Carcassone into the Pyrenees.  The mountain stage will dip into Spain for a bit near the end before finishing in Bagnères-de-Luchon.  A couple of massive category-1 climbs are in the second half of the stage, and a huge downhill sprint will finish the stage.  Our prediction is given below.

• Stage 16:  5h 44' 15" (prediction)

Many riders will surely take more than six hours to finish the stage.  That's a long time in the saddle!  It'll be a race to the summit of Col du Portillon to see who's in position for the big downhill sprint.