Tour De France Stage 15 predictions, tips, odds and free bets (July 19, 2015)

Sunday, 19 July 2015 09:38
Written by David Bet

Stage 15 or the 2015 Tour de France will start in Mende and finish 183km later in Valence. The sprinters have been waiting since stage 7 and marked stage 15 out as their only opportunity before Paris, but it will not be simple! Don't miss our Tour De France STAGE 15 betting preview including predictions, best odds, betting tips on Stage Winner and Head to Head, bookie promotions and no deposit bonuses!

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TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 15 BETTING PREVIEW

Despite the four categorized climbs that pepper its 183km course, Stage 15 looks certain to produce a sprint finish. In fact the first 18.5km are all uphill, with the category 3 Cote de Badaroux (4.6km, 5.1%) plus two category 4 climbs Col du Bez (2.6km, 4.4%) and Col de la Croix de Bauzon (1.3km, 6.2%). Then the Category 2 Col de l’Escrinet could serve as a launch pad for a breakaway but there are 75 mostly downhill kilometers between from the summit to the finish line and you can expect sprinters’ teams to reel in escapees. GC contenders will be able to relax a little but attackers have red-circled this stage too.

The teams with an interest in a sprint finish are mainly Tinkoff-Saxo, Katusha, Etixx-QuickStep, Giant-Alpecin and Lotto Soudal. But if a breakaway get a good advantage, it will not be easy to chase and they could prefer to save energy for later.

The likes of André Greipel and Mark Cavendish are likely to struggle on Col de l'Escrinet (or in the first three shorter climbs) and they need to return to the group in the final 75km. Furthermore, Greipel is currently struggling, he crashed in the last two stages and was clearly suffering from that in Stage 14.

Peter Sagan still doesn’t have his stage win in this year's Tour de France. His team will not be doing all the chasing work so if he wants to win he will be dependent on what other teams do.

Degenkolb might also struggle on the Col de l’Escrinet but he could organise and get back to the peloton because we don't expect him to lose too much time. The same apply to Kristoff (who has been nowhere near his best level) and Coquard while Boasson Hagen, Demare and Van Avermaet should be able to get over the climbs and they will force the pace if pure sprinters lose ground on those climbs.

If a breakaway makes it to the finish, it is very hard to find out who’s going to come out on top. We are still waiting to see something good from Michael Rogers, Matteo Trentin, Michael Matthews, Silvayn Chavanel, Filippo Pozzato and Ryder Hesjedal and this could be their best chance.

Attackers such as Bakelants, De Gendt and Kwiatkowski have already shown that they have legs to escape and mantain a good speed. Other long-shots to mention are: Westra, Stybar, Oss, Bak, Geschke, Weening, Voeckler, Navardauskas, Simon, Coppel, Barta, Fedrigo and Clement.