Tour de France: Bauke Mollema wins stage 15

While Dutchman Bauke Mollema was soloing to victory in Le Puy-en-Velay, Froome was putting himself into the red to chase down his rivals on the steep inclines of the Col de Peyra Taillaide.

The three-time Tour winner broke a spoke on his rear wheel just at the moment that Romain Bardet's AG2R La Mondiale team had upped the pace on the approach to the imposing climb.

With less than 30 seconds covering the top four in the general classification, Froome saw his race lead slipping away as Sky team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski frantically switched the rear wheels on their bikes.

"That was extremely stressful," Froome said. "It was panic stations. I really thought that could be the yellow jersey changing shoulders again after today's stage."

Sergio Henao and Mikel Nieve paced Froome up the early inclines, but after they pulled off he had to go alone before Landa dropped back from the front group to finish the job still three kilometres from the summit of the 8.3km climb.

Froome said he was in attack mode as he tried to get back on, riding solo through hostile crowds who made their preference for local boy Bardet clear.

"It couldn't have come at a worse time," added Froome, who lost the race lead on Thursday before reclaiming it in Rodez on Saturday, 18 seconds clear of Italian Fabio Aru and 23 ahead of Bardet.

"The speed was probably at the highest point in the race coming to the foot of the climb.

"If I didn't get back in I wouldn't expect to be in yellow any more this evening. I had to get back by the top of that climb or it was game over for me."

Froome was keen to thank all of his team-mates for their help, but it was the sight of Landa dropping back which was most notable.

The Spaniard, widely expected to leave Sky in the winter, started the day fifth overall with lingering questions over where his loyalties might lie, but after helping Froome he would lose a place in the general classification to dent his own podium hopes.

"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."

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.

The Quick-Step Floors rider, still feeling the effects of a stage nine crash, picked up 13 seconds to move above Landa into fifth, now 72 seconds off yellow. Colombian Rigoberto Uran of Cannondale-Drapac sits fourth, 29 seconds down.

"I knew it was a lot of downhill to the finish, so I knew if I got a gap it would be difficult to come back," Martin said. "So yeah I took advantage of the opportunity, I saw the opening and went."

Froome and the rest of the favourites crossed the line almost six and a half minutes behind Trek-Segafredo's Mollema, who collected his first career Tour stage win.

Mollema attacked out of the remnants of the breakaway on the descent of the Peyra Taillade, and held off a chasing group of Warren Barguil, Primoz Roglic, Diego Ulissi, and Tony Gallopin over the final categorised climb, the Cote de Saint-Vidal.

"It's really amazing," Mollema said. "I'm so happy to win a stage at the Tour de France. I've worked for it so hard in the last few years. That was a big goal for me.

"I just gave it a try in the last 30km. It was a long time riding alone. It was close to the chasers at the end but I made it. This is the biggest win of my career so far. The Tour de France has always been my dream. I'm incredibly happy."

While Froome retained his lead, Nairo Quintana's bid for Tour glory looks to be decisively over as he cracked on the Peyra Taillaide, and gave up four minutes to tumble out of the top 10.

The battle for yellow will resume in the Alps next week but for now the riders will get a much-needed rest day on Monday.

"All in all I am just happy to have got through without any major losses," Froome said. "I'm going to pass out tonight. I'm knackered."

Stage 15 result (Laissac-Severac 'Eglise - Le Puy-en-Velay 189.5 km): 1 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 4hrs 41mins 47secs, 2 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates at 19secs, 3 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, 4 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team LottoNl-Jumbo at same time, 5 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb at 23secs, 6 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team at 1min, 7 Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Direct Energie at 1min 04secs, 8 Jan Bakelants (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale, 9 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, 10 Serge Pauwels (Bel) Dimension Data, 11 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal, 12 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team, 13 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits all at same time, 14 Pierre Luc Perichon (Fra) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro at 1min 12secs, 15 Amael Moinard (Fra) BMC Racing Team at same time, 16 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb at 5mins 04secs, 17 Maurits Lammertink (Ned) Katusha-Alpecin at 5mins 07secs, 18 Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits at 5mins 14secs, 19 Romain Hardy (Fra) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro, 20 Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin at same time

Selected others: 27 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott at 6mins 25secs, 28 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky at same time, 72 Ben Swift (GBr) UAE Team Emirates at 18mins, 142 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data at 26mins 32secs, 147 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky, 157 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data at same time, 175 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro at 38mins 36secs

General classification standings after stage 15: 1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 64hrs 40mins 21secs, 2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team at 18secs, 3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 23secs, 4 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac at 29secs, 5 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors at 1min 12secs, 6 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky at 1min 17secs, 7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott at 2mins 02secs, 8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates at 5mins 09secs, 9 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo at 5mins 37secs, 10 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team at 6mins 05secs, 11 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team at 6mins 16secs, 12 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo at 6mins 39secs, 13 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb at 8mins 48secs, 14 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 13mins 41secs, 15 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky at 14mins 52secs, 16 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at 14mins 54secs, 17 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe at 19mins 37secs, 18 Carlos Betancur (Col) Movistar Team at 22mins 17secs, 19 Brice Feillu (Fra) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro at 27mins 08secs, 20 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty - Groupe Gobert at 27mins 28secs

Selected others: 103 Ben Swift (GBr) UAE Team Emirates 2hrs 09mins 05secs, 107 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data 2hrs 11mins 24secs, 146 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data 2hrs 38mins 53secs, 174 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 3hrs 16mins, 175 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Team Fortuneo - Oscaro 3hrs 24mins 19secs