BAUKE Mollema won stage 15 of the Tour de France to Le Puy-en-Velay as Chris Froome survived a scare to retain the yellow jersey.
Dutchman Mollema attacked from the remnants on the breakaway in the closing stages of the 189.5 kilometre stage from Laissac-Severac L’Eglise to take his first career Tour win.
Froome had needed a wheel change when the race was on approaching the Col de Peyra Taillade, and lost almost a minute before spending eight kilometres chasing his way back to the group of main contenders.
But the three-time Tour winner held on and retains his lead of 18 seconds over Italian Fabio Aru, with Frenchman Romain Bardet a further five seconds down in third place.
Bardet’s AG2R La Mondiale team had upped the pace as the category one Peyra Taillaide — the penultimate climb of the day — approached with around 40km left, and had already distanced Froome once before the Team Sky man was forced to pull over.
Froome took a quick wheel change from Michal Kwiatkowski before Mikel Nieve and Sergio Henao helped pace him up the climb.
Mikel Landa then answered questions about his loyalty to the cause by dropping out of the lead group to finish the job, and Froome clung on as Bardet tried a brief attack before the summit.
The main group of contenders marked each other over the rolling final kilometres, but Irishman Dan Martin was allowed to pull clear with around eight kilometres left and claw back more time.
It had been clear since midway through the day that stage honours would go to the breakaway, with Sky happy to let a 28-man group pull away.
Mollema attacked on the descent of the Peyra Taillade, and held off a chasing group of Warren Barguil, Primoz Roglic, Diego Ulissi, and Tony Gallopin to ride to the finish alone.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here