Tour De France, 2007, Stage 15: All Hail to the Queen Stage

Sixteen days into the 2007 Tour de France, the weary riders will encounter Monday what is known in cycling parlance as the "Queen Stage" in stage 15.

Following the individual time trial 13th stage Saturday and the first day in the Pyrenees on Sunday in the 14th stage, all the contenders and pretenders have been identified. And with six stages left in the race's 94th edition, one major question remains:

Can Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) of Denmark retain the overall lead he assumed after stage 8?

The question will begin to be answered when the field rides 196 kilometers (121.7 miles) from Foix to Loudenvielle and faces five categorized climbs.

Here are the categorized climbs in the 15th stage:

27.5 kilometers, Col de Port, 11.4 kilometers, 5.3 percent grade, category 2
98.5 kilometers, Col de Portet d'Aspet, 5.7 kilometers, 6.9 percent grade, category 2
114 kilometers, Col de Mente, 7.0 kilometers, 8.1 percent grade, category 1
159.5 kilometers, Port de Balès: 19.2 kilometers, 6.2 percent grade, hors catégorie
184.5 kilometers, Col de Peyresourde, 9.7 kilometers, 7.8 percent grade, category 1

Rasmussen has a strong corps of support riders, but will they be able to help as young Spanish rider Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) continues try his best to narrow his second-place deficit with the help of his teammates?

Here's the current top-10 overall race standings:

1. Michael Rasmussen (Denmark) Rabobank, 64 hours, 12 minutes, 15 seconds.
2. Alberto Contador (Spain), Discovery Channel, 2 minutes, 23 seconds behind.
3. Cadel Evans (Australia) Predictor-Lotto, 3:04 behind.
4. Levi Leipheimer (United States) Discovery Channel, 4:29 behind.
5. Andreas Klöden (Germany) Astana, 4:38 behind.
6. Carlos Sastre (Spain) CSC, 5:50 behind.
7. Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan) Astana, 6:58 behind.
8. Mikel Astarloza (Spain ) Euskaltel-Euskadi, 8:25 behind.
9. Alejandro Valverde (Spain ) Caisse d'Epargne, 9:45 behind.
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine) Discovery Channel, 10.55 behind.

Rasmussen and Contador will likely remain close to the front in the early stage ascents and they won't battle at the end, since the stage doesn't have a mountaintop finish. But it does have a new hors categorie climb, the Port de Bales. It's a 11.8-mile trek on narrow, twisting roads that ends about 20 miles from the finish and features nearly a 10 percent average grade.

Once the riders crest Port de Bales, the group will get a brief fast downhill reprieve before facing the category 1 Col de Peyresourde, a seven-mile effort that ends about six miles before what's expected to be a fast downhill finish to Loudenvielle.

The finishing city has only twice hosted the arrival of a Tour stage. Frenchman Laurent Brochard left an front-riding group on a a descent into Val Louron in 1997 and finished 14 seconds ahead of teammate Richard Virenque, Italian Marco Pantani and German Jan Ullrich.

Four years ago, Italy's Gilberto Simoni won a stage to Loudenvielle in a sprint with Swiss riders Laurent Dufaux and Virenque.