Tour de France – Pogacar takes seconds from Vingegaard, Kwiatkowski wins stage

47 seconds behind Kwiatkowski, three seconds ahead of Pogacar, Maxim Van Gils (Lotto – Dstny) finished second on the day. Both had tackled the 17.4-kilometer final climb to the honor category mountain finish at the Grand Colombier in the original 20-man breakaway group of the day with a lead of almost four minutes.

“I had 18 friends in the group. It was a good lead for the last hill. But it was a crazy experience. I knew that the group is a free pass to get to the final hill, but that we’re still fighting for the win , I didn’t think so,” Kwiatkowski rejoiced at the second tour stage win of his career.

“I had the best legs of my life. I never thought that was possible. Winning a mountain stage is amazing. I still have the memories of how Egan (Bernal) was doing here three years ago, being by his side when he back then. Those aren’t nice memories. But then to win with Richard (Carapaz) a few days later, where we drove flat out from start to finish – that was great. My last attack today was probably the toughest of my career. It was still so far to the finish. It wouldn’t have been possible without the fans.”

While Vingegaard arrived four seconds after Pogacar, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) lost 13 seconds in the final meters of the uphill sprint in fifth place on the Slovenes, Jai Hindley (Bora – hansgrohe) their 15 and Simon Yates (Jayco – AlUla) 24. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the finish line 28 seconds after his captain, with Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) another two seconds behind.

As a stage 13. And thus the fifth-best driver in the breakaway group crossed the finish line 1:34 minutes after Kwiatkowski Zimmermann. Seven seconds behind him was Austrian Felix Gall (AG2R – Citroen), who moved up three places in the overall standings to 14th.

There, Vingegaard is now nine seconds ahead of Pogacar and 2:51 minutes ahead of Hindley. Rodriguez is still fourth overall, 4:48 minutes behind, Adam Yates (+ 5:03) and Simon Yates (+ 5:04) pushed past Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious / + 5:25) in fifth and sixth place. Pidcock (+ 5:35) is still eighth in the standings.

While Vingegaard kept the yellow and Pogacar kept the white, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin – Deceuninck) also maintained his green and Neilson Powless (EF Education – EasyPost) his polka dot jersey. In the team classification, the Ineos Grenadiers jumped past Bahrain Victorious and are now 3:39 minutes ahead.

This is how the 13th stage of the Tour de France went:

The first attacks came right after the start, but it took almost 20 kilometers on a flat track for a quartet to pull away by a few seconds. Shortly thereafter, 16 more riders jumped to the front of the four and after about 25 kilometers the breakaway group of the day around the German Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché – Circus – Wanty) was there.

The group quickly went 1:30, but then UAE Team Emirates took control of the peloton and fought back with Matteo Trentin, Vegard Stake Laengen and Mikkel Bjerg. Tadej Pogacar’s team even reduced the gap to just 1:15 minutes, and then only allowed the gap to increase to a maximum of three minutes, until the peloton became even more cautious on the descent at the foot of the final climb.

With a lead of 3:50 minutes, the leaders reached the 17.4-kilometer ramp to the Grand Colombier (category HC / 7.1% on average). There Quentin Pacher (Groupama – FDJ) attacked at the front and started to solo, but the Frenchman was flat 12.5 kilometers before the end and was beaten by James Shaw (EF Education – EasyPost), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) and Maxim Van Gils (Lotto – Dstny) caught and overtaken.

Kwiatkowski starts his solo with 11.5 km to go

A good 500 meters later, Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) came from behind, drove past and then started the solo with 11.5 kilometers to go. The peloton, led by UAE Team Emirates, was still 3:20 minutes behind the leaders.

Kwiatkowski still reached the 5-kilometer mark with a lead of 2:15 minutes over the peloton, where Felix Großschartner had taken over the lead from Marc Soler and was now getting help from Rafal Majka. When it was 2.5 kilometers before the finish line out of the forest onto the alpine meadows, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) attacked in the favorite field and only the podium candidates could follow.

At the front, however, Kwiatkowski drove irresistibly towards victory. The Pole reached the final kilometer with a lead of around 1:30 minutes and was finally able to celebrate alone. While the Pole was doing this, Pogacar finally launched his attack behind him. The Slovenian sprinted the last 500 meters up the mountain, Vingegaard stayed on the rear wheel for a short time, but there was a gap of five seconds at the finish line.

In the sprint, the top favorites stormed past Zimmermann, Shaw and Tejada, but Van Gils saved himself in front of them in second, giving Pogacar a four-second time bonus in third place.