Thomas Voeckler wins stage 12 as Contador regains yellow jersey
Thomas Voeckler has won stage 15 of the Tour de France in Bagnères-de-Luchon.
The Bbox Bouygues Telecom rider was well ahead of the peloton and won by a comfortable margin.
Alberto Contador of Team Astana regained the yellow jersey from Andy Schleck, who had a 31 second lead at the start of the stage but then suffered from a broken chain with 22 kilometres to go, losing 29 seconds, and was unable to make up the deficit on last year’s Tour winner.
It seems Schleck had too much power, forcing the chain to give way. Had he not put so much power into the pedals of the SaxoBank bike, it is possible it would have stayed on and put him in a commanding position.
Contador now has an eight-second lead at the top of the overall standings, with Schleck dropping to second place.
The 187-kilometre stage saw the riders depart from Pamiers, 60 kilometres south of Toulouse. Towards the end of the stage, the riders faced a dramatic climb at Port de Balès. After that, Voeckler was able to come home without any problems as it was downhill all the way.
Tomorrow’s stage is the toughest on the Tour, and Schleck has plenty of work to do to make up time on Contador to stop the Spaniard making it three Tour wins.
Tags: