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July 15 update: Stage 15 starts in a town that has never hosted a Tour stage before, Samatan, and finishes in Pau which is hosting its 65th Tour stage making it one of the all-time most popular Tour stops. Only Paris (141) and Bordeaux (80) have hosted more stages.
Monday's stage will follow the foothills of the Pyrénées through normally quiet countryside and rolling terrain. In the second half of this 159 km stage, there are three modest categorized climbs before the flat finish in Pau where the final 600m are perfectly straight setting up for a mass sprint. The following day is the second and final rest day before the two remaining mountain stages so a break will not succeed unless the sprinter teams make a miscalculation. Update: Looks like the sprinter teams are tired. Both Orica-GreenEdge and Lotto missed the break but aren't chasing. — Steve