Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) has notched his first professional victory and his team’s second consecutive stage win and its fourth in this year’s Tour de France. The Italian jumped into a daylong breakaway and outsprinted 11 companions to take the Stage 14, a hilly, 191-km ride from Saint-Pourcain-sur-Sioule to Lyon in 4:15:11. Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) took second and third, respectively, and Chris Froome (Sky) remains the maillot jaune.

The hostilities began early. Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol), Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard), and Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale) got clear at three km, and Arthur Vichot (Francaise des Jeux) and Christophe Le Mevel (Cofidis) joined the trio 15 km later. Le Mevel was dropped, and at 35 km, the escape was 0:14 ahead of the peloton. At that point, 14 riders jumped out of the bunch, and they merged with the break at 42 km. The break consisted of Bak, Kadri, Vichot, Andrew Talansky and David Millar (both from Garmin-Sharp), Tejay van Garderen and Marcus Burghardt (both from BMC), Imanol Erviti and Jose Joaquin Rojas (both from Movistar), Voigt and Jan Bakelants (both from RadioShack-Leopard), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Egoitz Garcia (Cofidis), Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano), Trentin, Albasini, and Julien Simon (Sojasun).

Argos-Shimano took charge of the peloton, and the break led the bunch by 1:20 at 55 km. Lampre-Merida and Euskaltel-Euskadi took over at the front. The gap narrowed to 1:05 at the summit of the Category 4 Cote de Marcigny (66.5 km) and 0:45 at 74 km, but Lampre-Merida’s pursuit was halfhearted, and the peloton got no closer to the fugitives. Euskaltel-Euskadi stopped chasing, and the escapees’ lead grew to 2:10 at 94 km, 2:20 at 98 km, and 3:50 at 113 km. Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi) attempted to bridge up to the break, but he was reeled in.

On the Category 3 Cote de Thizy-les-Bourgs, Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) launched their own attempt to catch the break. The Dutchman left the Italian behind on the Category 3 Col du Pilon, and with 64.5 km left, at the summit of the Pilon, the break was 0:55 ahead of Hoogerland. On the descent, Burghardt attacked, but his companions reeled him in. Hoogerland sat up and allowed Cunego to catch him, but the lead group led the pair by 2:05 with 50 km left, with the peloton at 4:30.

On the Category 4 Cote de Lozanne, Burghardt made another unsuccessful attack. At the summit, the break was 3:26 ahead of Hoogerland and Cunego, and the bunch was at 6:50.

Albasini attacked with a little more than 25 km left, but he was caught quickly. Millar countered, but Albasini took the Scot’s wheel.

At the base of the Category 4 Cote de la Duchere, Bakelants attacked but Brutt pulled all of the rest of the group except for Voigt to the Belgian. Burghardt did the pacesetting up the climb, and Millar was dropped.

On the descent, Simon attacked. He forged a 14-second lead with 13 km left. One km later, Kadri set out after his compatriot. The peloton, at 6:33, was about to reel in Hoogerland and Cunego.

At the summit of the day’s final climb, the Category 4 Cote de la Croix-Rousse, Simon led Kadri by 0:22. Cooperation in the break had broken down.

With six km left, 0:15 separated the bunch from the chasers. Geschke tried to catch Simon, but Vichot took his wheel. Van Garderen and Kadri set out after Simon, but they were reeled in quickly.

With 3.5 km remaining, Simon led the chasers by 0:18. Burghardt chased, and Van Garderen was dropped. Bak attacked and Gautier and Bakelants followed, but Burghardt countered with two km left and took Albasini with him. Albasini overtook Simon at the one-km banner.

Bakelants and Geschke led the chase. With 200 m left, Bakelants started the sprint. Trentin, however, powered down the middle of the road for the win.

According to Trentin, the sprint was planned. "With Mark we always plan the sprint before the race," Trentin said. "Every time we plan, so I have to start from this point, and arrive at that point. Gert has to start from that point and bring Mark to, I don't know, 250 or 200 meters. The thing we always say is 'be calm and wait for the right moment.' Today, I just waited for the right moment. Because I saw the wind, and everybody that started before me in the sprint for sure would come back because it was too strong to make a longer sprint than 200 meters. I just waited because I knew that my good sprint is 200 meters or less. When I saw the 200 meter marker, I started and that was the key of my sprint today.

"In a breakaway of about 20, of course you can't control everybody," Trentin said. "So maybe somebody controlled Albasini, maybe the guys who think for sure he is going to attack for the final. They know I am quite fast, so maybe there's a fast guy who controlled me. Because in the last 20km I saw that I always had Rojas [Movistar] with me, on my wheel, almost always behind me. I also controlled other guys, so it's something like a tactic within a tactic during the race. But when you arrive to the finish line it is just your legs. Nothing more controls somebody else."

In the overall, Froome leads Bauke Mollema (Belkin) by 2:28 and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) by 2:45. Stage 15 will be the beginning of the last act of this year’s Tour. The 242.5-km ride from Givors to Mont Ventoux will end with the fabled climb. The fight for the yellow jersey will take place on the ascent. Will Froome keep his overall lead? Will Contador, Mollema, or another GC contender get close to or seize the yellow jersey? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!