Still in the Pyrenees, this 187.5km stage started in Pamiers, some sixty kilometres south of Toulouse and made it's way to close to the France/Spain border before arriving in the mountain town of Bagners De Luchon.
A day for the climbers, there were a number of sprints on the stage and Cervello's Jeremy Hunt (pictured below) won the first sprint of the day at Clermont.
Vandborg (Liquigas), Van Summeren (Garmin-Transitions), Ivanov (Katusha), Ballan (BMC), Reda (QuickStep), Roberts (Milram), Perez Arrieta (Footn) were involved in a break and they were more than ten and a half minutes clear before the stage got to the Port de Bailes climb with 21km to go.
This climb is one of the worst on the tour this time round is a19.5-kilometre climb that averages a 6.2% grade, with the final 10 kilometres at 8.5%. It was certainly not one for riders who have been suffering on a long hot day.
Thomas Voeckler, the French champion was also in the leading group and he was leading the way whilst Ballan who had been dropped, chased back along with Nicholas Roche following his puncture.
Andy Schleck, Samuel Sanchez and Alberto Contador all worked hard to bring the gap down and with 24km to go, it was less than six minutes.
Shleck tried to attack but his chain came off his bike and Contador seized the opportunity to try and get some of the 31 seconds time that he was down on Saxo Bank rider back.
Voeckler was first over the Port de Bailes summit and started the long descent into Bagneres De Luchon. He cruised to victory in a time of 4hr 44.51 seconds.
Second was Ball with Peres Arrieta third . Behind them, Contador (pictured below) was in a group of eight with Denis Menchov and they came home 2 mins and 49 seconds down on Voeckler.
Schleck came in at 3.28 down which meant that the yellow jersey was on the shoulders of Alberto Contador, who leads by eight seconds.
Nicholas Roche is 17th, Bradley Wiggins is 23rd, Geraint Thomas 72nd, Steve Cummings 149th, Mark Cavendish 151th, David Millar 157th, Daniel Lloyd 163rd and Jeremy Hunt 166. 174 riders are still in the tour.
Stage 16 is 199.5km long and is from Bagneres De Luchon to Pau and you can see it live on British Eurosport (from 10am) and ITV4.
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Geraint Thomas (pictureed below) will miss the track races in the Commonwealth Games in October. The British Champion is competing in the World Championships in Australia but will be back to represent Wales in the mens road race.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM & Jeff Matthews.