Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the nd Tour de France. Stage 15 sees the riders travel km from Mende to Valence. We're less than half an hour away from the start of stage 15 of the Tour de France from Mende to Valence and the last few riders are making their way to sign on. It's a slightly cooler start to the day but the temperatures are set to go over 30 once again today. If you missed the news yesterday, the reason Sky have chosen to take the step to surround themselves with the police this morning is after their leader Chris Froome was doused in urine by a spectator, while his teammates Richie Porte and Luke Rowe were apparently also spat on.
Read the full story here. Amid all the furor that surrounded Chris Froome, there was some much nicer news for the fans to read about after Stephen Cummings delievered MTN-Qhubeka their first Tour de France victory. It was also Cummings' first Tour win also and you can read his reaction here. Today could be an opportunity for the sprinters but if they want to have hope of even making the sprint they'll have to get over the second category Col de l'Escrinet. Here is today's profile.
Cyclingnewsfeed Sun, 19th Jul The riders are rolling through the short neutral section and we can expect racing any moment now. Nairo Quintana moved into second place after his attack on yesterday's climb. He's still over 3 minutes behind the yellow jersey but he's not being deterred. Read Quintana's reactions here. Despite only being a second category finish, yesterday's stage saw some sizable gaps between the GC riders.
Here is how the top 10 looks after that day. Daniel Teklehaimanot made the first attack of the day, bringing 10 riders with. The pace is high on this opening climb and a number of riders have been distanced, including Peter Kennaugh, Mark Cavendish and one of yesterday's escapees Simon Yates. Serge Pauwels takes the two points at the top of the climb with Lieuwe Westra taking the other point available. Despite passing the KOM point, there is still some climbing to do.
The leaders currently have 22 seconds on the peloton. The latter is wearing the polka-dot jersey but looking to take it outright. He's only got nine points to make up on Froome. Here are the mountains standings as of this morning. So we have 27 riders out front currently with a seconds gap on the peloton. Strap in, because here's the full list of escapees as it stands. They don't want to give the break too much room as their sprinter Alexander Kristoff is in with a shout of victory in Valence.
