Norwegian Alexander Kristoff sprinted his way to victory in today's Stage 15 of the Tour de France. New Zealand's Jack Bauer had essentially led the entire stage -- and lost it in the final 30 m (33 yd). Bauer was in tears after the race, and who can blame him? Bauer looked like he had the distance in front of the attacking sprint group with just half a kilometer to go. The group caught Bauer right at the end, leaving Bauer in 10th place. The image below shows Kristoff just after crossing the line with Bauer on the far left of the image (click on the image for a larger view).
To see how close the sprint group was bunched together at the end, check out the image below (click on the image for a larger view).
Kristoff is just ahead of Australia's Heinrich Haussler with Slovakia's Peter Sagan in green on the left coming in third. Kristoff has now won the last two flat stages, and we did a great job predicting his winning time, as the comparison below shows.
- Stage 15: 4h 56' 43" (actual), 4h 58' 57" (prediction), 02' 14" slow (0.75%)
We are pleased to be under 1% error for the fourth time! With crosswinds gusting up to 30 kph (19 mph) over parts of the stage, sometimes helping and sometime hurting cyclists, it was good that wind did not play a major role in the winning time. It was also fortunate that the rain that fell for much of the day in Nîmes had abated by the time the cyclists got there. Below is Kristoff's average speed.
- Stage 15: 12.47 m/s (44.89 kph or 27.89 mph)
The Tour de France has its second and last rest day tomorrow. The Pyrenees are lurking, so cyclists better get lots of rest! I'll post our prediction for Stage 16 tomorrow.
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