Teamwork sees Froome retain jersey

CHRIS Froome survived a scare to retain the yellow jersey as Bauke Mollema won stage 15 of the Tour de France to Le Puy-en-Velay.

Dutchman Mollema attacked from the remnants on the breakaway in the closing stages of the 189.5 kilometre ride 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.

“I had a problem with my rear wheel that had to be changed,” Froome said.

“Kwaitkowski gave me his wheel because the team car was far away.

“We did all we could to return to the top of the race. Thanks to my team-mates, Sergio Henao and Mikel Nieve, who helped me. It was a time of stress.

“I thought I might not see the lead again.”

After Nieve peeled off, Froome was forced to chase alone before Mikel Landa 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.

“All the team did nice work,” Landa said.

“Chris had a mechanical problem, we had a difficult moment but we worked like a team to save the day.

“Chris has a lot of experience and team-mates around him. We stayed calm and resolved the situation.”