Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ-BigMat) claimed his fourth career victory at the Tour de France after outsprinting Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda) on stage 15 as the break stayed away for the second day running.

Fedrigo and Vande Velde jumped away from their breakaway companions inside the final seven kilometres before going on to contest the finish in Pau, the Pyrenean city where Fedrigo earned his last Tour stage victory in 2010.

The peloton crossed the line more than 11 minutes later, with Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) maintaining his two minute and five second advantage over fellow Brit and team-mate Chris Froome.

On paper the stage looked set to end with a bunch sprint in Pau but, with back-to-back mountain stages in the Pyrenees after Tuesday’s rest day, the peloton were happy for the breakaway to ride away.

It took more than 50km for the break to form, however, with a succession of attacks going away before teams who had missed the move worked to reel in the escapees.

But after more than an hour of flat-out racing, the peloton eventually sat up to allow Fedrigo, Vande Velde, stage ten winner Voeckler (Europcar), Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Samuel Dumoulin (BMC Racing) to form the decisive break, with Nikki Sorensen (SaxoBank-Tinkoff) joining the quintet after a long solo pursuit.

With Voeckler the best-placed rider in the break, nearly an hour down on general classification, Team Sky showed no interest in reeling in the break, while Lotto-Belisol only briefly came to the front in aid of triple stage winner Andre Greipel.

And that allowed the escapees to open up an insurmountable advantage as the leaders, holding a lead of more than ten minutes going into the final 25km, turned their thoughts to the tactical battle for stage victory.

Sorensen was the first to flinch, launching two speculative digs in quick succession with 10km to go but Voeckler and Vande Velde combined to bring the group back together.

Fedrigo then jumped from the front of the group, with only Vande Velde able to follow the Frenchman as the duo worked together, taking advantage of the chasing quartet’s disorganisation to establish a 20-second lead.

And the duo maintained that advantage going into the final kilometre, with Vande Velde happy to sit on Fedrigo’s wheel in the knowledge that the 33-year-old was the faster sprinter of the two.

That forced Fedrigo to open up a long-range sprint and Vande Velde had no answer to his rival’s power on the finishing straight as Fedrigo recorded FDJ-BigMat’s second victory of the race after Thibaut Pinot’s triumph on stage eight.

The race resumes on Wednesday with a 197km mountain stage from Pau to Bagneres de Luchon which includes the climbs of the Col d’Aubisque, Col du Tourmalet, Col d’Aspin and Col de Peyresourde.

Result

1) Pierrick Fedrigo (FRA) – FDJ-Big Mat – 3:40.15 hours
2) Christian Vande Velde (USA) – Garmin-Sharp – same time
3) Thomas Voeckler (FRA) – Europcar +12″
4) Nicki Sörensen (DEN) SaxoBank-Tinkoff – same time
5) Dries Devenyns (BEL) – Omega Pharma-QuickStep +21″
6) Samuel Dumoulin (FRA) – Cofidis +1’08”
7) André Greipel (GER) – Lotto0-Belisol +11’50”
8) Tyler Farrar (USA) – Garmin-Sharp – same time
9) Peter Sagan (SVK) – Liquigas-Cannondale
10) Kris Boeckmans (BEL) – Vacansoleil-DCM

General classification

1) Bradley Wiggins (GBR) – Team Sky – 68:33.21
2) Christopher Froome (GBR) – Team Sky +2’05”
3)Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Liquigas-Cannondale +2’23”
4) Cadel Evans (AUS) – BMC Racing +3’19”
5) Jurgen Van Den Broeck (BEL) – Lotto-Belisol +4’48”
6) Haimar Zubeldia (SPA) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek + 6’15”
7) Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing +6’57”
8) Janez Brajkovic (SLO) Astana +7’30”
9) Pierre Rolland (FRA) – Europcar +8’31”
10) Thibaut Pinot (FRA) – FDJ-Big Mat +8’51”