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It was a case of so near and yet so far for Tinkoff – Saxo’s Peter Sagan as BMC Racing’s Greg Van Avermaet relegated the Slovakian rider to yet another second place finish on Stage 13 of the 2015 Tour de France.
Beginning in the town of Muret, the thirteenth stage of the race took the peloton on a 198.5 kilometre-long journey through the Midi-Pyrénées countryside to the town of Rodez. Featuring several hills along the way, three of them categorised, the riders were in for a long, hard ride after three stages in the Pyrénées.
It didn’t take long for the breakaway of the day to form with riders off up the road from kilometre zero. Formed by Alexandre Geniez (FDJ), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo); the four escapees were soon joined by Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché) and Australian Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin).
Further attempts to join the breakaway by Perrig Quémeneur (Europcar) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) were shut down and the six escapees were allowed a maximum advantage of just under five minutes. Missing out on the breakaway, without a stage victory so far in the 2015 Tour de France, Giant – Alpecin were keen to catch the break and set up John Degenkolb for a crack at the stage victory.
The German team would be left to chase the six escapees alone for most of the stage until Tinkoff – Saxo decided to join them with 70 kilometres remaining. Later the two teams were joined by riders from MTN – Qhubeka and Orica – GreenEDGE, who were looking to contest the stage with Edvald Boasson Hagen and Michael Matthews.
Splitting apart over the final uncategorised and un-named climb of the day, the breakaway’s numbers were reduced to three as Thomas De Gendt, Cyril Gautier and Wilco Kelderman increased the tempo in a bid to beat the onrushing peloton to the finishing line. The three escapees almost stole the show but were finally caught just 500 metres short on the decisive climb of the Côte Saint-Pierre.
Belgian cyclist Greg Van Avermaet launched a powerful attack up the Côte Saint-Pierre’s steep slopes, distancing all by one of his rivals for the victory. Peter Sagan homed in Greg Van Avermaet’s rear wheel up the climb and followed the Belgian’s slipstream all the way to the finishing line.
Greg Van Avermaet fought hard hard to keep the Slovakian behind him, the Belgian smartly taking the shortest possible line to the finishing line. Approaching the finish would everyone began to ponder, did Peter Sagan have enough energy left to sprint past the Belgian? The answer was a resounding no as Sagan failed to muster the power required to pip Van Avermaet to the line.
It was a well deserved victory for BMC Racing’s Greg Van Avermaet, who has built up a similar reputation for lacking that mythical ‘final one per cent’ needed to turn a podium finish into a prestigious victory.
2015 Tour de France – Stage 13 Results:
01. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC)… 04:43:42″
02. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo)… ST
03. Jan Bakelants (AG2R)… +0:03
04. John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin)… +0:07
05. Paul Martens (LottoNL-Jumbo)… ST
06. Christopher Froome (Sky)… ST
07. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)… ST
08. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo)… ST
09. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)… ST
10. Tejay Van Garderen (BMC)… ST
2015 Tour de France – General Classification after Stage 13:
01. Christopher Froome (Sky)… 51:34:21″
02. Tejay Van Garderen (BMC)… +2:52″
03. Nairo Quintana (Movistar)… +3:09″
04. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)… +3:58″
05. Geraint Thomas (Sky)… +4:03″
06. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo)… +4:04″
07. Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo)… +5:32″
08. Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal)… +7:32″
09. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)… +7:47″
10. Bauke Mollema (Trek)… +8:02″
After three gruelling stages in the Pyrenees the 2015 Tour de France sets off for the French Alps. Join The Roar for live coverage of Stage 13 of the 2015 Tour de France from 10:00pm (AEST).
The first of three transition stages, Stage 13 begins in Muret and heads eastwards towards Rodez through the hills and valleys of the Midi-Pyrénées.
It is often said that it is the riders which make the race and today’s lumpy parcours would be hard pressed to provide better assistance. Beginning rather tamely, the 198.5 kilometre-long stage throws in a succession of categorised and uncategorised hills after the intermediate sprint in Laboutarie (92.5km).
The general classification riders are expected to keep their powder dry for tomorrow’s difficult stage to Mende but Team Sky will still need to be vigilant as Alberto Contador can strike at the most surprising of times.
Beginning with the third category Côte de Saint-Cirgue (3.8-kilometres at 5.8 per cent), the peloton will also tackle the Côte de la Pomparie (2.8-kilometres at 5 per cent) and the Côte de la Selve (3.9-kilometres at 3.7 per cent) en route to the finish.
On another day the uncategorised climb (3-kilometres at 5 per cent) up to La Primaube might have been classified, and it is the penultimate climb out on course. With its summit lying 12-kilometres from the finishing line in Rodez it is arguably too far out to be used as the launch pad for a decisive move.
After La Primaube the road begins to descend almost all the way to the Flamme Rouge as the race enters the L’Averyron river valley. Position will be everything going in to the final kilometre of the stage so the pace will be high as the teams with general classification ambitions fight to keep their team leaders safe.
The decisive moment of the stage, on paper, occurs when the peloton turn right off the Route de Moyrazes and on to the Avenue de Saint-Pierre and begin the decisive climb of the Côte Saint-Pierre (570-metres at 9.6 per cent) with just 620-metres remaining.
With just 50-metres separating the finishing line and the summit anyone with stage ambitions cannot let a significant gap form during the ascent as there’ll be no chance of closing it during the finishing straight.
Prediction:
Considering the difficulty of the finish and Stage 14’s challenging 178.5 kilometre-long parcours from Rodez to Mende the breakaway’s chances of success look very good. The short, sharp nature of the finish will favour the puncheurs and we could see many of them try to get in the break today.
Calling who will make the breakaway of the day can be a complete lottery at the best of times, but we can expect the likes of the Yates twins or Pieter Weening, Pierrick Fedrigo, Alexis Vuillermoz, Alexandre Geniez, Jose Herrada, Julien Simon, Zdenek Stybar and any MTN – Qhubeka rider to try their luck.
Whether the peloton attempts to reel in the breakaway before the finish in Rodez will greatly depend on who misses the cut.
On paper, today’s stage could favour the characteristics of John Degenkolb, and currently without a stage victory so far Giant – Alpecin will be eager to finally taste victory at ‘Le Tour’ this year. So if Giant – Alpecin miss the breakaway then we could see them leading the chase back in the peloton.
Peter Sagan will also be eager to contest the stage victory to protect his Maillot Vert from Andre Greipel and hopefully finally get a proverbial monkey off his back that stems from a string of second place finishes.
Today’s intermediate sprint looks to favour Greipel so the Slovakian could theoretically find himself out of the green jersey by the end of the stage if he is not careful.
If the peloton do actually reel in the breakaway in before the finale of the stage things could get messy as opportunistic general classification riders join the fray with time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds up for grabs.
But what do you think? Let us know in the comments and join us from 10:00pm for live updates, commentary and chat as we follow Stage 13 of the Tour De France.
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