Pierrick Fedrigo wins the stage 15 of the Tour de France 2012
Pierrick Fedrigo of Team FDJ-Big Mat bagged his first victory of the Tour de France 2012 after his spectacular performance during the stage 15 of the race.
He completed the 158.8 kilometre chase to Pau in the fastest time of 3 hours, 40 minutes and 15 seconds and restricted the race favourites.
Christian Vande Velde of Team Garmin-Sharp finished second with Thomas Voeckler, Nicki Sorensen and Dries Devenyns achieving the next three positions.
The cyclist opened his 2012 winning account with a victory during the stage 3 of the Criterium International and also occupied the second overall position at the race.
Fedrigo also rode brilliantly during the Four Days of Dunkirk and finished sixth after the overall classifications.
Nicki Sorensen of Team Saxo Bank and Pierrick Fedrigo of Team FDJ-Big Mat succeeded during the first and the second sprints of the race with 20 and 45 UCI points respectively.
Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar continued his dominance during the different climbs of the contest and won all the three 107, 123.5 and 129 kilometre climbs of the event.
Nicki Sorensen won the most combative rider award while Peter Sagan, Kris Boeckmans, Arthur Vichot, Anthony Roux and Edvald Boasson Hagen were the top five young riders on the day.
Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky Procycling remained in yellow jersey for the eighth consecutive day after his 22 place finish during the stage 15 of the Tour de France 2012.
He is leading the classifications with a margin of 2 minute and 5 seconds over his team-mate Christopher Froome.
Vincenzo Nibali is further 18 seconds behind at the third position with Cadel Evans of Team BMC and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Team Lotto Belisol holding the fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
Top ten stage 15 finishers are as below,
1
Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
3:40:15
2
Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Sharp
3
Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar
0:00:12
4
Nicki Sörensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
5
Dries Devenyns (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
0:00:21
6
Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
0:01:08
7
André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team
0:11:50
8
Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Sharp
9
Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
10
Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
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