Tour de France LIVE: Tadej Pogacar attacks Jonas Vingegaard as Michal Kwiatkowski wins stage 13
The fight for the yellow jersey took another twist as Tadej Pogacar attacked Jonas Vingegaard on the Grand Colombier
Former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski soloed to the top of the Grand Colombier mountain on the Tour de France and Tadej Pogacar cut a little more time off Jonas Vingegaard’s lead in the fight for the yellow jersey on Friday.
Kwiatkowski, a seasoned veteran with the Ineos Grenadiers team, was part of an early breakaway and went solo about 11 kilometers from the daunting mountaintop finish.
Vingegaard and Pogacar watched each other closely. Well shepherded by his UAE Team Emirates teammates, Pogacar did not attack before the last 500 meters of the 17.4-kilometer-long ascent, yet managed to gain some precious time.
Pogacar crossed the line in third position behind Kwiatkowski and Maxim van Gils, four seconds ahead of Vingegaard. He was awarded a time bonus of four seconds for his third-place finish to cut Vingegaard’s overall lead to just nine seconds ahead of two big mountain stages scheduled in the Alps over the weekend before Monday’s second rest day.
Follow all the latest from today’s stage 13 below.
Israel Premier Tech boss criticises Chris Froome as ‘not value for money’
Some headline-grabbing quotes from the owner of Israel Premier Tech yesterday, after he was asked about Chris Froome, their big-money signing who was left out of the Tour de France squad:
“How could we say we had value for money?” Sylvain Adams told cyclingweekly.com. “We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he’s not even here, so that cannot be considered value for money … Chris isn’t a symbol. He isn’t a PR tool … So no, I couldn’t say he’s value for money, no.”
Tour de France 2023 standings
If you select the ‘stopwatch’ tab on the tracker above, you can take a look through the five categories of standings – the yellow jersey (overall), green jersey (sprint), polka dot jersey (mountains), white jersey (youth) and team.
Today Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) is in yellow with a slender 17-second lead over Tadej Pogacar; Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is in green, having dominated the sprints with four wins from four attempts, and he leads Mads Pedersen by a huge 141 points; America’s Neilson Powless (EF Education) remains in polka dots, though his advantage could be shredded as Vingegaard and Pogacar battle in the Alps over the coming days and sweep up King of the Mountains points; Pogacar (UAE Emirates) is wearing the young rider’s white jersey, four minutes up on Ineos’s Carlos Rodriguez; and Bahrain Victorious are the leading team, just ahead of Ineos and Jumbo-Visma. The top team typically wear yellow on their helmets.
Tour de France LIVE – Another breakaway brought back
105km to go: The last four to go – Pacher, Van Gils, Oliveira and Teunissen – have all been brought back into the fast peloton. This is frantic stuff early on. Now a much bigger bunch is going, of about 20 riders.
Tour de France LIVE – Pogacar ready to go ‘full gas'
Pogacar, who is expected to be on the attack, said: “I can’t wait to be there. Tomorrow is a good climb, if the legs are good, we can attack; if they’re not good maybe just follow until the top.
“This one will be full gas,” the 24-year-old said.
Tour de France LIVE – flurry of early attacks shut down
110km to go: There have been a flurry of early attacks but those involved are struggling to make it stick against a high-paced peloton reeling them back in. The latest attempt to get away is by Pacher, Van Gils, Oliveira and Teunissen.
Tour de France LIVE – Bastille Day
It’s Bastille Day in France, and locals will be hoping for a home win. That may prove hard to come by, given the parcours and the lack of Frenchmen near the top of the leaderboard.
Tour de France LIVE – two riders escape up the road
120km to go: So we are under way on stage 13 and two riders have made an early break for it: Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X).
Tour de France – delight for Spanish Basque region
When Pello Bilbao won Tuesday’s stage 10, it was a first Spanish stage winner in five years. Two days later there was another, both from Basque riders thriving in a race which began in their home region.
“I felt strong in the last kilometres,” Ion Izagirre said. “Many things went through my mind. It’s all very emotional. It’s a very Basque Tour de France. It started at home for us and we took two stage wins. I’m happy to follow the line drawn by Pello Bilbao.”
Tour de France LIVE – riders gather for stage 13 start
The peloton has come together on the start line for stage 13, with the jersey wearers together at the front sharing a few words. Will we see a showdown between the man in yellow, Vingegaard, and the rider in white, Pogacar? Almost certainly. This has the makings of a thrilling race to the top of the Grand Colombier.
Tour de France LIVE – Vingegaard braced for ‘very decisive day'
A fter a few days with the mere mortals in the peloton, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are ready to resume their battle for the Tour de France title as the 13th stage will be decided at the top of the lung-busting ascent to the Col du Grand Colombier on Friday.
The 17.4km climb, at an average gradient of 7.1%, will provide the perfect stage for defending champion Vingegaard and twice winner Pogacar, who have been a cut above the rest of the field, to fight for yellow again in a highly-anticipated duel.
“They’re on another planet,” Frenchman Guillaume Martin, 13th in the general classification and the 2020 Vuelta mountains classification winner, said on Thursday.
“How I see them? In the climbs, from afar,” he joked. “At least there are two of them so you have a proper show, a real duel to watch.”
Pogacar trails overall leader Vingegaard by 17 seconds and who is going to attack first on Friday is anyone’s guess as both riders are keeping their cards close to their chest.
“I think tomorrow will be a very important stage,” the soft-spoken Vingegaard said. “The climb is very hard, I’ve done it once and I think it will be a very decisive day.”
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