Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) survived a punishing route to win his first-ever Tour de France stage.
The Dutchman jumped away from the breakaway group of the day 31 kms from the finish to claim a solo victory ahead of Diego Ulissi and Tony Gallopin.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) bounced back a mechanical failure to pursue Romain Bardet (AG2R) and hold on to the yellow jersey ahead of Fabio Aru (Astana).
Froome was first caught at the end of a split caused by AG2R-La Mondiale, who continued to press the pedals when the race leader suffered a mechanical problem shortly before the key climb of the day.
The Team Sky leader kept his cool, however, and powered his way back to stay on top of the general classification with an 18-second advantage over Italian Fabio Aru.
Bardet, who enjoyed huge crowd support in his home region in the Massif Central, stays third 23 seconds off the pace. Rigoberto Uran is fourth six seconds further back.
Quel numéro de @BaukeMollema pour s’imposer aujourd’hui ! Revivez le dernier kilomètre ! / Relive the last kilometer of the stage! #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/lDL34ajmhY
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 16, 2017
Tour de France 2017 – stage 15 results (Laissac-Sévérac l’Église – Le Puy-en-Velay):
| 1 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | 4:21:56 |
| 2 | Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) | +19” |
| 3 | Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 4 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 5 | Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) | +23” |
| 6 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +01’00” |
| 7 | Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) | +01’04” |
| 8 | Jan Bakelants (AG2R) | ,, |
| 9 | Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) | ,, |
| 10 | Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 11 | Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 12 | Damiano Caruso (BMC) | ,, |
| 13 | Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 14 | Luc-Pierre Perichon (Fortuneo-Oscaro) | +01’12” |
| 15 | Amael Moinard (BMC) | ,, |
| 16 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | +05’04” |
| 17 | Maurits Lammertink (Katusha-Alpecin) | +05’07” |
| 18 | Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) | +05’14” |
| 19 | Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Oscaro) | ,, |
| 20 | Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
General classification after stage 15:
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 64:40:21 |
| 2 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +18” |
| 3 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) | +23” |
| 4 | Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) | +29” |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’12” |
| 6 | Mikel Landa (Team Sky) | +01’17” |
| 7 | Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) | +02’02” |
| 8 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | +05’09” |
| 9 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +05’37” |
| 10 | Damiano Caruso (BMC) | +06’05” |
| 11 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +06’16” |
| 12 | George Bennett (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +06’39” |
| 13 | Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) | +08’48” |
| 14 | Pierre Latour (AG2R) | +13’14” |
| 15 | Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) | +14’52” |
| 16 | Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R) | +14’54” |
| 17 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +19’37” |
| 18 | Carlos Betancur (Movistar) | +22’17” |
| 19 | Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Oscaro) | +27’08” |
| 20 | Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | +27’28” |
