Tour de France 2017: Stage 13

Tour de France 2017: Stage 13

by Katie Haskins

Stage type: Road Race – mountains

Length: 101 km/62.8 miles

Route: Saint-Girons to Foix

Today is the shortest road stage of the Tour de France since 1996. It started with 279 riders and had three Category 1 climbs. Two men broke off the front immediately but were caught before the early sprint point. Three men broke off 2k from the sprint. Michael Matthews beat Kittel at the sprint point.

The breakaway continued to evolve with three riders making it off the front with two chase groups of two and four respectively. It then became chases of two and seven before finally coalescing into a chase of nine riders with the peloton about a minute behind the three leaders.

The first of three climbs was the Col de Latrape. 5.6 km long, elevation change of 1293 ft, 7.3% avg. gradient, and 11.5% max gradient. Midway up the climb there was only a 34 second gap to the peloton.

Climb two was the Col d’Agnes. 10 km long, 2552 ft elevation change, 8.2% avg. gradient and a max gradient of 13.3%. There are four riders at the front at the bottom of the climb, only seconds in front of the peloton, but put in an acceleration to widen the gap. Eventually it becomes two riders about 30 seconds ahead of a group of four, and about a minute back to the peloton which at this point is being referred to as the yellow jersey group due to the field being strung out along the mountains. There is a sky rider in each of the three groups. When the two leaders reach the top of the climb, they are ahead of two 3 rider groups and 2:30 ahead of the yellow jersey group of 23 riders.

Climbe three was the Mur de Peguere. 9.3 km long 2339 ft elevation change, 7.9% avg. gradient and a max of 18%. The yellow jersey group constantly attacks each other up and over this climb, especially on the descent. At the top, there are four riders in the lead group: Roberto Contador, Mikhal Landa, Warren Barguil, and Nairo Quintana. They are ahead of yellow by about 2 minutes. With about 4 km left, Dan Martin attacks from the yellow group and Simon Yates follows.

With a sprint to the line, Warren Barguil wins in 2:36:29, becoming the first Frenchman to win on Bastille Day since 2005.

There are minor shakeups in the leader board.