Dani Martinez (EF Pro Cycling) sealed the first Colombian stage victory of the 107th Tour de France as he managed to beat the Bora-Hansgrohe duo formed of Maximilian Schachmann and Lennard Kämna atop the unprecedented and spectacular finish of Puy Mary. He’s the 13th Colombian to win a Tour de France stage, the 21st for the country. Primoz Roglic extended his overall lead and Tadej Pogacar took over from Egan Bernal as runner up. The deficit of the defending champion is now 57 seconds.
CAVAGNA AND ALAPHILIPPE EARLY IN ACTION
160 riders took the start of stage 13 in Châtel-Guyon. Krists Neilands (Israel Start-Up Nation) was first on the offensive, soon relayed by the enfant du pays Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step) who passed his town of Riom in the lead as a front group was formed Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Niccolo Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie), Simon Geschke (CCC), Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Tejay van Garderen (EF). Cavagna’s team-mate Julian Alaphilippe who is also from the Auvergne region came across. It was a very eventful stage beginning with Peter Sagan failing to hold the pace of a chasing group and Thomas De Gendt failing to bridge a gap. Rémi Cavagna and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Simon Geschke (CCC), Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Marc Soler (Movistar) composed the front group atop the cat. 1 col de Ceyssat (km 36).
MADOUAS ALONE IN THE LEAD AT HALF WAY
Two kilometres before the col de Guéry, km 63.5, 17 riders were reunited at the front after many fierce battles: Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), Hugh Carthy, Daniel Martínez and Neilson Powless (EF Education First), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates), Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Romain Sicard (Total Direct Energie) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) are reunited and coming across to Rémi Cavagna and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Simon Geschke (CCC), Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Marc Soler (Movistar). Two riders attacked with 112km go: Carthy and Madouas. Madouas continued on his own and crested the col de la Stèle alone in the lead. After 18km solo at the front, the young Frenchman sat up and the 16-man group was reunited. Their advantage over the peloton was 8’15’’ on the line of the intermediate sprint, 80km before the end, while Romain Bardet and Nairo Quintana were victims of a crash. They came out unscathed at the difference of Bauke Mollema who was forced to abandon.
POWLESS PAVES THE WAY FOR MARTINEZ IN A DOWNHILL
The maximum deficit of the bunch was 10’40’’ with 50km to go. Powless rode away from the 17-man front group in a downhill with 40km to go. Schachmann was first to try and catch the American by himself. They formed a leading duo 29km before the end. They started climbing to col de Néronne with an advantage of 50’’. With 18km to go, Schachmann went solo. Soler launched a counter-attack but couldn’t hold the pace of Martinez who chased the lone leader with Kämna sticking to his back wheel. Martinez and Kämna came across to Schachmann with 1.8km to go. Kämna sped up with 650m to go. Martinez managed to hold on. Kämna launched the uphill sprint but Martinez beat him. In the yellow jersey group, the Slovenian duo Roglic-Pogacar managed to drop arch-rival and defending champion Egan Bernal who lost some significant time.
