Davide Cimolai demonstrated once again his qualities as a sprinter by collecting a place in the top 10 in a Tour de France stage for the fourth time. The young talent from Team Lampre-Merida, who had a difficult week on the Pyrenean roads, was 9th in the 15th stage of the Grande Boucle (Mende-Valence, 183 km), exploiting the support of his team mates perfectly

The final sprint, which was very fast, was won by Greipel, while Cimolai used the energy left to fight against the top sprinters. In the stage standing, he was the first Italian rider and he added his fourth result in the top ten at the Tour de France 2015 (one time 8th and three times 9th, in addition to the 8th place obtained by Lampre-Merida in the team time trial).

In the early part of the stage, two other blue-fuchsia-green rider , Durasek and Plaza, were fighting, joining a 25-rider breakaway, which was neutralized by the peloton just before another attack of 9 riders could escape from the bunch, leading the race until 30km from the finish

"The speed of the race was very high from the beginning to the end of the stage,” Cimolai explained. “That's why I didn't have much energu for the sprint. However I could exploit my determination to achieve a result in the top five.

“I received precious support by my team which allowed me to be just behind the top sprinters in the final kilometer. I perceived that there was a strong crosswind, that's why it was difficult to try to overtake the other riders. I preferred to make a progression which, however, was not enough to be in the top five.”