THE heavy hitters had their work cut out in another challenging mountain stage in the big bike race, says cycling expert JOHN TREVORROW:
A BRUTAL day in the Massif Central mountains saw two separate battles unfold in stage 13 of the Tour de France — a race for stage honours and a race for the yellow jersey.
The journey from Chatel-Guyon to the summit finish on Puy Mary was a monster of a day. 197 km with 4500 metres of climbing, seven categorised climbs including a category 1 challenge after only 25 kms. And just to top it off a category 1 finale up an extinct volcano.
An early crash saw Richie Porte’s Trek Segafredo teammate Bauke Mollema carted away in an ambulance and two contenders, Colombian Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and French hope Romain Bardet (AG2R), scramble back to the main peloton. Bardet struggled gallantly to finish but has now withdrawn with concussion.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe breakaway took nearly 50 km to establish itself and then a couple of groups came together which included a few heavyweights who were far enough down on GC not to be a threat. This saw seventeen riders open up a lead of seven minutes.
Max Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) jumped clear inside the final 20 km and then with 15 km to go Daniel Martinez (EF Pro Cycling) powered away from the splintering group with Lennard Kämna (BORA-hansgrohe) glued to his wheel. We were presented with a fascinating tactical battle and the two German Bora riders looked to have the numerical advantage over the Colombian. But Martinez was showing glimpses of his Dauphine winning form, plus the steep slopes of the Puy Mary worked to the climbing specialist’s advantage. He shelled Schaschmann in the final 5 km and overpowered Kamma in the last 50 metres.
But the battle for the Yellow jersey was what we were really focused on. Team Ineos looked to retake some initiative and put the hammer down as they approached the final climb. But Jumbo-Visma had the superior numbers and, as it turned out the superior firepower.
What unfolded over the final two kms of the challenging final climb was just awesome. Race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and his Slovenian compatriot Tadej Podacar (UAE) attacked and cracks were appearing everywhere amongst all the contenders. Except for Porte who was magnificent. The Tasmanian showed some of the brilliant climbing prowess of Tours gone by and fought all the way to the line only losing 13 seconds on the Slovenian pair and taking 25 seconds from Bernal, Rigoberto Uran, Adam Yates and Quintana, moving up to 9th place 2m06 sec down on Roglic.
I may have to rethink putting Bernal back as my favourite because he looked under severe pressure and it doesn’t bode well to defending his title. On the other hand Roglic and Podacar have shown no signs of weakness and I just can’t wait until Sunday’s brutal 16 km assent of the Grand Colombier.
Stage 13
| 1 | Daniel Felipe Martinez Poveda (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 05:01:47 |
| 2 | Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:00:04 |
| 3 | Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:00:51 |
| 4 | Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 00:01:33 |
| 5 | Pierre Rolland (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept | 00:01:42 |
| 6 | Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis | 00:01:53 |
| 7 | Simon Geschke (Ger) CCC Team | 00:02:35 |
| 8 | Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:02:43 |
| 9 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 00:03:18 |
| 10 | David De la Cruz Melgarejo (Spa) UAE Team Emirates | 00:03:52 |
| 11 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 00:04:31 |
| 12 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:06:05 |
| 13 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:06:05 |
| 14 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:06:18 |
| 15 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:06:18 |
| 16 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:06:21 |
| 17 | Neilson Powless (USA) EF Pro Cycling | 00:06:29 |
| 18 | Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:06:43 |
| 19 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:06:43 |
| 20 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:06:45 |
| 21 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:06:45 |
| 22 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:06:57 |
| 23 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:07:15 |
| 24 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:07:34 |
| 25 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:07:34 |
| 26 | Romain Sicard (Fra) Total Direct Energie | 00:07:49 |
| 27 | Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 00:08:35 |
| 28 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:08:44 |
| 29 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 00:08:51 |
| 30 | Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:09:25 |
GC after stage 13
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 56:34:35 |
| 2 | Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates | 00:00:44 |
| 3 | Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:59 |
| 4 | Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:01:10 |
| 5 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:01:12 |
| 6 | Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team | 00:01:31 |
| 7 | Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:01:42 |
| 8 | Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:01:55 |
| 9 | Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo | 00:02:06 |
| 10 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:02:54 |
| 11 | Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 00:03:00 |
| 12 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 00:03:14 |
| 13 | Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:04:32 |
| 14 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:05:11 |
| 15 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:06:22 |
| 16 | Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain McLaren | 00:07:02 |
| 17 | Pierre Rolland (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept | 00:14:34 |
| 18 | Sergio Andres Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Pro Cycling | 00:26:12 |
| 19 | Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic | 00:27:11 |
| 20 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:33:30 |
| 21 | Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:36:09 |
| 22 | Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:36:46 |
| 23 | Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana Pro Team | 00:40:13 |
| 24 | Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 00:42:16 |
| 25 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 00:42:56 |
JOHN TREVORROW is a multiple Australian champion road racer and Olympian who has been doing media commentary at the Tour de France for more than 20 years.
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