Who won the 2015 Tour de France?
"2015 Tour de France The 2015 Tour de France was the 102nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The -long race started in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on 4 July 2015, and concluded with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris, on 26 July. A total of 198 riders from 22 teams entered the 21-stage race, which was won by Chris Froome of . The second and third places were taken by the riders Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, respectively. 's Rohan Dennis won the first stage to take the race leader's yellow jersey. rider Fabian Cancellara claimed"
"the Tour twice, after his 2013 victory. Peter Sagan of won the points classification. Froome also won the mountains classification. The best young rider was Quintana, with his team, Movistar, the winners of the team classification. Romain Bardet of was given the award for the most combative rider. André Greipel () won the most stages, with four. Twenty-two teams participated in the 2015 edition of the Tour de France. All of the seventeen UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited, and obliged, to attend the race. On 14 January 2015, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the five"
"included Fabian Cancellara (), Luke Rowe (Sky), Sep Vanmarcke (), Greg Van Avermaet () and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), who had won the 2009 edition of the race. The 2015 winner, Luca Paolini, was not present to defend his title due to his suspension following a positive test for cocaine during the 2015 Tour de France. The race took place in windy weather. Combined with a crash, these conditions caused the peloton to break into several groups in the first part of the race. The first group was a five-rider breakaway, composed of Lieuwe Westra (), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff),"
"the race after suffering injuries or health problems earlier in the season. Contador claimed his third Vuelta, with Froome finishing as runner-up, after both men withdrew from the 2014 Tour de France due to injury. The 2015 edition saw another strong field contest the race, including the top four finishers at the 2015 Tour de France (Froome, Valverde, Nibali and Nairo Quintana) and two of the podium finishers from the 2015 Giro d'Italia in the form of Nibali's teammates Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa. With the withdrawals of Chris Froome and the disqualification of Vincenzo Nibali, it was left to"
"followed by Bardet and 's Warren Barguil, respectively. finished as the winners of the team classification, over fifty-seven minutes ahead of second-placed . There were four main individual classifications contested in the 2015 Tour de France, as well as a team competition. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. Time bonuses returned to the Tour for the first time since the 2008 edition. For all stage finishes, excluding the two time trial stages, the three first finishers of stages earned bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds respectively."
"2015 Tour de Ski The 2015 Tour de Ski was the 9th edition of the Tour de Ski. The Stage World Cup event began in Oberstdorf, Germany on January 3, 2015, and ended in Val di Fiemme, Italy on January 10, 2015. The titles were being defended by Therese Johaug (Norway) and Martin Johnsrud Sundby (Norway), the former of which came second to Marit Bjørgen, while Sundby retained the title. On July 20, 2016, Sundby was stripped of the win due to illegal use of asthma medication during the race. Final overall standings after all seven stages, with bonus seconds"
"2015 UCI World Tour The 2015 UCI World Tour was the seventh edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2009. The series started with the opening stage of the Tour Down Under on 20 January, and concluded with Il Lombardia on 4 October. For the second successive year, Spain's Alejandro Valverde won the World Tour individual points title, amassing 675 points over the course of the season. The rider finished 201 points clear of his closest rival and compatriot Joaquim Rodríguez of , while Colombian rider Nairo Quintana was third – also for the"
"2015 La Route de France The 2015 La Route de France is an elite women's cycling stage race that took place in France between 9 and 15 August. It was the ninth edition of La Route de France. The race was won by Elisa Longo Borghini (), who won two stages including the queen stage to La Planche des Belles Filles. She finished 1' 18"" ahead of Amber Neben (), with Claudia Lichtenberg a further eight seconds back in third. The best young rider was Jenelle Crooks (Australia). The mountains classification was won by Tetyana Ryabchenko (). 16 teams were"
"2015 Tour of Flanders The 2015 Tour of Flanders (in Dutch, ""Ronde van Vlaanderen"") was the 99th edition of the Tour of Flanders one-day cycling race. It took place on 5 April and was the eighth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The race is one of the cobbled classics and is the second of the cycling monuments on the 2015 calendar. The 2014 champion was Fabian Cancellara; he was not able to defend his title after breaking two vertebrae in a crash at E3 Harelbeke. The race was initially dominated by a breakaway group of up to seven"
"2015 Tour of Oman instead. Chris Froome () and Alberto Contador () both chose to begin their 2015 seasons in Andalusia. Nairo Quintana () also intended to start his season at this race, but he pulled out following a crash. The race was closely contested by Contador and Froome. Contador took the lead in the race after the split first stage, beating Froome by eight seconds in the individual time trial. He then increased his lead in the general classification by winning the summit finish on stage 3. Froome, however, won the second summit finish on stage 4 to take"
"2015 Giro d'Italia The 2015 Giro d'Italia () was a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race that took place in May 2015. It was the 98th running of the Giro d'Italia and took place principally in Italy, although some stages visited France and Switzerland. The race included 21 stages, beginning in San Lorenzo al Mare on 9 May and concluding in Milan on 31 May. It was the fifteenth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The Giro was won by Alberto Contador (), with Fabio Aru () second and Aru's teammate Mikel Landa third. Contador first took the lead"
"first attack on the unclassified climb on the finishing circuit, but Brändle covered the move and passed him. Brändle was then able to hold off the chase of Keisse – the faster sprinter – and finished the stage with a four-second advantage. Van Meirhaeghe finished third with Pate fourth. In the peloton, Peter Sagan won the bunch sprint, over a minute behind Brändle. Rafael Valls was therefore able to secure the overall win, nine seconds ahead of Van Garderen, to take the first professional stage race win of his career. There were five principal classifications in the 2015 Tour of"
"overall in the Tour de France - Laurent Fignon (winner) and Bernard Hinault (runner-up) finished in the top two overall in 1984. In 2015, Pinot had his first victory of the season at the Tour de Romandie. He won the queen stage of the race with seven seconds of an advantage over his nearest pursuer, Ilnur Zakarin of . He finished fourth in the general classification and was awarded the best Young rider jersey. In June, as he was preparing for the 2015 Tour de France, he participated to the Tour de Suisse and won the queen stage, a long"
"was won by Mark Cavendish, second was Wouter Wippert and Peter Sagan came in third, reaping a four-second bonus and making him the winner of the overall classification of the 2015 Tour of California. Sagan was third by mere inches over fourth-placed Tyler Farrar and they had to wait for the photo-finish to make it official. Had Sagan not effectuated a bike throw as he crossed the line, he would not have won. It was the closest winning margin in the Tour's history. Sagan celebrated with a long, one-handed wheelie while saluting the crowd. ""I'm very happy to win the"
"believe he had any hope of winning the two-man sprint against one of the quickest finishers in the world?"" 2015 Tour of Flanders The 2015 Tour of Flanders (in Dutch, ""Ronde van Vlaanderen"") was the 99th edition of the Tour of Flanders one-day cycling race. It took place on 5 April and was the eighth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The race is one of the cobbled classics and is the second of the cycling monuments on the 2015 calendar. The 2014 champion was Fabian Cancellara; he was not able to defend his title after breaking two vertebrae"
"riders before the favourites in the chasing group started to attack on the climb of the Taaienberg, from the finish. Eventually, Alexander Kristoff and Niki Terpstra broke free and contested the victory in a two-man sprint, won by Kristoff, who became the first Norwegian to win the race. Greg Van Avermaet finished third. The route of the 2015 edition of the race was only slightly adjusted from that of the 2014 edition, with two climbs added to the route in the first , the Tiegemberg and the Berendries. It was in length, longer than in the previous year and featured"
"2015 Vuelta a España The 2015 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling race. The race was the 70th edition of the Vuelta a España and took place principally in Spain, although two stages took place partly or wholly in Andorra, and was the 22nd race in the 2015 UCI World Tour. The race included 21 stages, beginning in Marbella on 22 August 2015 and finishing in Madrid on 13 September. It was won by Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team), with Joaquim Rodríguez () second and Rafał Majka () third. The early leaders of the race were Esteban"
"victory in the race. These were the first victories of his professional career. The second stage was won by Luka Mezgec (). Philippe Gilbert (), who finished on the podium both days, won the points classification. The mountains prize was won by Ignatas Konovalovas () and the best young rider was Quentin Pacher (). The best team was . 20 teams were selected to take place in the 2015 edition, including six UCI World Tour teams. The 2014 champion was Carlos Betancur (), but he was not selected for the 2015 edition, still being far from the form he had"
"end of the previous stage. 2015 Tour de Pologne The 2015 Tour de Pologne was the 72nd edition of the Tour de Pologne stage race. It took place from 2 to 8 August and was the twentieth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. It was won by the Spanish cyclist Jon Izagirre. As the Tour de Pologne is a UCI World Tour event, all seventeen UCI Pro Teams were invited automatically and obliged to enter a team into the race. Two wildcard teams were also given places: and a Polish national team. The 2015 Tour de Pologne begins in"
"Nibali and ahead of Thibaut Pinot. He and Pinot became the first Frenchmen to finish in the top three overall in the Tour de France since Richard Virenque finished as runner-up overall in 1997. It was the first time in 30 years that two Frenchmen finished in the top three overall in the Tour de France - Laurent Fignon (winner) and Bernard Hinault (runner-up) finished in the top two overall in 1984. In 2015, Péraud repeated his victory on the 2.HC Critérium International by winning the last stage finishing atop the Col de l'Ospedale. He won the general classification with"
"upon exiting it, but no accident occurred. Špilak needed fourteen seconds over Thomas to get in front of him in the general classification. Dumoulin came in with a time nineteen seconds better than Cancellara's and won the stage with an average speed of . Špilak came in with a time of 48' 54"" and Thomas registered 49' 12"", a difference of 18 seconds. Therefore, Špilak was declared the official winner of the 2015 Tour de Suisse by five seconds. ""I’m really happy and want to thank my teammates who helped me too much during the race. This is the biggest"
"2015 Tour d'Azerbaïdjan The 2015 Tour d'Azerbaïdjan was a five-day cycling stage race that took place in Azerbaijan in May 2015. The race is the fourth edition of the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan. It was rated as a 2.1 event as part of the 2015 UCI Europe Tour. The race included five stages, starting in Baku on 6 May and returning there for the finish on 10 May. The 2014 champion was Ilnur Zakarin (then ), but he was not present to defend his title. The race was won by Primož Roglič (), who won a solo victory on the second stage"
"a further four minutes and six seconds to Contador, leaving him in 17th position, eight minutes and 52 seconds behind the race leader. On the next stage Porte lost a further 27 minutes and abandoned on the second rest day, team leadership being handed over to Leopold König. König would finish the Giro in sixth position, over ten minutes behind victor, Alberto Contador. The team went into the 2015 Tour de France with their ""strongest team ever"" seeking to improve on their poor 2014 edition of the race. The team entered with Froome leading the title challenge, along with Poels,"
"2015 race was stage 1, when a breakaway of three riders escaped and was able to stay away throughout the stage; the same riders made up the final podium. Rafaâ Chtioui () won the first and second stages and took the yellow jersey for the overall victory. These were the first professional wins of his career. Chtioui was the first Tunisian to win the overall victory in the race, and the second African. Following his victory, he became the leader of the 2015 UCI Africa Tour rankings. The other riders to break away on stage 1, Giovanni Bernaudeau () and"
"the peloton in the final , before a failed move by a trio consisting of Daniel Oss, Tony Martin () and Bram Tankink (). Tony Gallopin () launch a late attack, but was caught by the bunch sprint that was won by Nacer Bouhanni, his second stage victory of the race. There were no changes to the classifications. 11 June 2015 — Digne-les-Bains to Pra-Loup, Stage five from Digne-les-Bains to Pra-Loup was the first classified as mountainous and was in length. The first section of the stage was flat, until the passing of the third-category Col des Léques at ."
"John Degenkolb (), while the Tour of Flanders was won by Alexander Kristoff (). Liège–Bastogne–Liège was the final event of the spring classics season and came as the conclusion to the Ardennes classics, following the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. It was also part of the 2015 UCI World Tour, a season-long competition that included both one-day events and stage races. As it is part of the UCI World Tour, the 17 UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited and obliged to send a team to Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The race organisers (ASO, which also organises the Tour de France) also made"
"to send a squad. To complete the field, two UCI Professional Continental teams were invited to join the race. The number of riders allowed per team was eight, so the starting field contained 152 cyclists. Rui Costa () won the last three editions of the race, however he was not present at the 2015 event, as he raced in the Critérium du Dauphiné instead. More contenders for the overall classification of the Tour de France opted for the latter race since it was more mountainous. There were two former winners of the Tour de Suisse at the starting line, teammates:"
"2015 Tour de Pologne The 2015 Tour de Pologne was the 72nd edition of the Tour de Pologne stage race. It took place from 2 to 8 August and was the twentieth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. It was won by the Spanish cyclist Jon Izagirre. As the Tour de Pologne is a UCI World Tour event, all seventeen UCI Pro Teams were invited automatically and obliged to enter a team into the race. Two wildcard teams were also given places: and a Polish national team. The 2015 Tour de Pologne begins in Warsaw, with the shortest road"
"2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21 The 2015 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling race that took place principally in Spain between 22 August and 13 September 2015; two stages also took place partly or wholly in Andorra. The final ten stages took the race from the mountains of Andorra to the conclusion of the Vuelta in Madrid. After the first eleven stages, Fabio Aru () held the race lead, around half a minute ahead of Joaquim Rodríguez () and Tom Dumoulin (). Stage 12 was a flat stage, won by Danny van Poppel"
"Abdelkader Belmokhtar (Algeria), finished second and third respectively in the general classification. Bernaudeau also won the green and white jersey of the mountains classification. Four of the stages in the race were won by the team. Three of these were won by Yauheni Hutarovich. The rose jersey of the points classification, however, was won by Yohann Gène, who finished in the top 10 in six stages. The white jersey of the best young rider was won by Bonaventure Uwizeyimana (Rwanda). Fifteen teams were selected to take part in the 2015 edition of the race. Four of these were Professional Continental"
"the finish. The first three riders across each of these sprint points won bonus seconds in the general classification. This replicated the system from the 2015 Tour of Belgium, where the golden kilometre system had played a part in the victory of Greg Van Avermaet (). Most World Tour stage races are won by strong climbers. The Eneco Tour is unusual because the favourites for overall victory were classics riders—those who perform strongly in the Ardennes classics and the cobbled classics that feature in the early part of the cycling season. The defending champion was Tim Wellens (), who won"
"the peloton. Race leader Alberto Contador () also attacked on the run to the finish, without success. John Degenkolb was the favourite to win from the remaining group, but he was surprised by a sprint from out by Juan José Lobato (). Degenkolb attempted to chase Lobato, but the Spaniard won by several bike lengths for his second win of 2015. Bob Jungels () was in second place before the stage, but could not follow the pace on the final climb and so dropped out of the top 10. Beñat Intxausti () moved up to second, while Chris Froome ()"
"2015 European Cross Country Championships The 2015 European Cross Country Championships was the 22nd edition of the cross country running competition for European athletes. It was hosted in Hyères, France. The 2014 runner-up Ali Kaya took the men's senior title, retaining the crown for Turkey. Spain, led by 2013 champion Alemayehu Bezabeh, returned to the top of the team rankings in that category. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was the women's senior winner, building upon her under-23 title win of 2013. Great Britain defended the women's team title, led by Kate Avery, who was runner-up for a second time running."