Philipsen swoops to conquer in Pau
Stage 13 report: Following the withdrawal of Primoz Roglic, Jasper Philipsen took his second stage win of the Tour after a spate of failed attacks in the final kilometres paved the way for yet another dash to the line. Jeremy Whittle reports from Pau …
🚀 A pefect leadout for @WoutvanAert, but Jasper the Master strikes again for #TDF2024 stage win No.2 ! Relive the final KM here ⤵️
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 12, 2024
🚀 Un lancement parfait pour @WoutvanAert mais c'est Jasper the Master qui l'emporte une deuxième fois sur ce #TDF2024! Revivez le dernier KM ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/AMuqoDQr3q
The late crash: “That replay doesn’t look good for the wallet of the rider who caused the crash,” writes Richard Powell and he’s not wrong. I’m not sure who the culprit was yet but it looked like a Lotto Dstny rider just barged through a gap that wasn’t there and knocked over a rider from Arkea-B&B Hotels.
Jasper Philipsen speaks: “It was full gas from the start,” our stage winner tells Eurosport. “The bunch never slowed down, there was crosswinds and a big group ahead. We had two guys in that and I thought they would continue to the line but the peloton kept on going, so I kept on believing. The feeling was good, much better than I had in the previous week, so I could start my sprint with confidence and I’m happy nobody could pass.”
Stage 13 top five
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 3hr 23min 09 sec
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike)
Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech)
Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty)
Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious)
Jasper Philipsen wins the stage
He beat Wout van Aert, Pascal Ackermann and Biniam Girmay in a very messy sprint finish. I didn’t have high hopes for today’s stage before it started, but it has been thoroughly absorbing from pillar to post.
Updated
That crash: A couple of Arkea-B&B Hotels riders seems to have hit the deck in the closing stages and brought down a couple more with them. One of them was knocked over by an as yet unidentified Lotto Dstny rider who was coming up his inside and it’s something the race jury might want to have a look at.
Jasper Philipsen wins stage 13
With Girmay boxed in, for the second time in this Tour the Belgian Alpecin Deceuninck rider wins in a sprint finish.
1km to go: Girmay’s Intermarche Wanty teammates are in control but there’s a big crash. Girmay and Van Aert are not affected.
2km to go: Intermarchy Wanty are at the front with Girmay on fourth wheel. Wout van Aert is the Eritrean’s wheel, with Jasper Philipsen also lurking.
3km to go: Biniam Girmay makes his move up towards the front, where a couple of his teammates are nicely placed. Arnaud Demare is nearby. In the polka-dot jersey and blessed with apparently bottomless reserves of energy, Jonas Abrahamsen launches an attack off the front. He’s quickly reeled in.
4km to go: We approach the end of an extremely attritional stage where the riders at the tip of the spear have been racing busily all afternoon. There’s been no let-up since Christian Prudhomme gave the signal to start racing.
7km to go: Less than seven kilometres to go and this stage could still end in any number of ways. Assorted riders keep attacking off the front of the bunch as the peloton negotiates a series of large roundabouts. Visma-Lease A Bike are at the front, hoping to tee up the stage win for Wout van Aert in a sprint finish.
10km to go: Christophe Laporte (Visma–Lease a Bike) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) jump across from the front of the bunch to join our two leaders but the quartet are soon caught.
13km to go: Biniam Girmay’s Intermarche-Wanty teammates move to the front of the bunch in an attempt to put a stop to Stuyven and Van Moer’s gallop. They want a sprint finish.
15km to go: Stuyven and Van Moer drop Grellier while several other riders try to attack off the front off the bunch. The gap is 16 seconds.
17km to go: There’s another breakaway attempt off the front of the bunch featuring three riders: Jasper Stuyven, Brent Van Moer and Fabien Grellier. They open a small gap of 10 seconds.
21km to go: Johannessen and Carapaz are caught, which means the winner of today’s stage will come from the yellow jersey group. Biniam Girmay, Arnaud Demare, Matteo Jorgenson, Jasper Philipsen, Wout van Aert and Michael Matthews are all present and can handle themselves in a sprint finish.
Updated
25km to go: It looks to be an exercise in almost total futility but Carapaz and Johannesson keep plugging away at the front, trying to increase their lead of 32 seconds.
Updated
26km to go: With three stage wins to his name already in this Tour, things are looking good for Biniam Girmay this afternoon. He is comfortably ensconced in the peloton with all his teammates around him.
29km to go: Carapaz and Johannessen are just 27 seconds clear of the yellow jersey group as the riders tackle the second of two climbs today.
The Norwegian leads the Ecuadorian over the top. In terms of a sprint finish, Dylan Groenewegen, already a stage winner on this Tour, is in a group that is 1min 25sec behind the yellow jersey group.
34km to go: Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) have opened a small but not insignificant gap of 18 seconds on the yellow jersey group.
Updated
38km to go: Just when it looked like things might be settling down for a while so everyone can get a breather, Richard Carapez (EF Education–EasyPost) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) decide to launch a breakaway attempt off the front of the main group. Along with Adam Yates, their names will currently be dirt in the peloton and the team cars which are following it.
40km to go: The Cavendish group is now over three minutes behind the main bunch.
44km to go: The yellow jersey group and the one behind it merge but Mark Cavendish is in a third group, some way behind them and look to have given up any hope of catching up.
48km to go: The escape party has been caught and a yellow jersey group of 47 riders, including the main GC contenders, have a lead of 47 seconds over two chasing groups comprised of most of the rest of the field. As far as sprinters are concerned, Wout van Aert, Binian Girmay, Jasper Philipsen and Dylan Groenewegen are all in the lead group.
51km to go: “I saw Kathy from Florida’s question earlier about wages and whether cyclists get docked if they leave a race,” writes Paul from Divonne in France. “Well the UCI in agreement with the cyclist union sets minimum wages for world tour teams of around €42,000/year. Most will earn much more than this. I don’t think wages are docked for leaving early.”
55km to go: Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Romaine Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X) are now just 11 seconds clear of the 30ish-strong yellow jersey group, which just threatened to split. Mathieu van der Poel and Mark Cavendish are in the back group.
Updated
60km to go: The gap is down to 36 seconds. With the countryside completely exposed, crosswinds have fractured the peloton into four distinct groups. The first of those is about 30 riders strong and has all the main GC contenders in it. Movistar’s Enric Mas team leader is in the back group but was already having a terrible Tour and is only in 19th place overall.
69km to go: Our four-man breakaway is 56 seconds clear of the peloton, which has absorbed the rest of the Traveling Wilburys. On race radio, Astana Qazaqstan have a sprint finish in mind and have told their riders to start protecting Mark Cavendish. There’s still a strong possibility of crosswinds, which could wreak havoc in the peloton, so all the main General Classification contenders will want to be near the front so they don’t get caught out by any wind-generated splits.
75km to go: As things stand, Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Romaine Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X) are 50 seconds clear of the 17 rider with whom they formed the original breakaway.
Those 17, with GC podium contender Adam Yates an unpopular and unwelcome presence among them, are only about 200 metres clear of the peloton. Wearing the polka-dot jersey on behalf of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Abrahamsen is pushing on, however. There’s two King of the Mountains up for grabs today and he wants them, to win the jersey outright for at least one more day before the Tour hits the Pyrenees.
Updated
80km to go: Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Romaine Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X) have opened a gap of 44 seconds on the Traveling Wilburys, who are about the same distance again clear of the chasing peloton.
90km to go: “When riders quit the ride or drop out from injuries, are their salaries cut?” asks Kathy from Florida. “Or a percentage?How does this work?”
Hi Kathy from Florida, the short answer is that I don’t know. The long answer is that I very much doubt their salaries are cut if they drop out with injuries. I reckon if they drop out for any reason other than illness or injury, they might lose out on performance-related bonuses. But that’s just a guess, so if anyone out there lknows better, feel free to get in touch.
Updated
93km to go: Kwiatkowski, Bernard, Gregoire and Cort Neilson have broken away from the breakaway and opened a little gap of nine seconds.
94km to go: The sprinters’ teams have decided to get involved. Seven different teams who missed the break, including Jayco AlUla, Soudal Quick-Step, Cofidis and Intermarche-Wanty have joined forces at the front of the bunch to try to close the gap to the breakaway.
The lead group will be pleading with Adam Yates to eff off, so the chase will be called off and the rest of them can contest the stage between them but for nowe he’s going nowhere. Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby has just referred to the breakaway "super-group” as The Traveling Wilburys, which tickled me.
106km to go: Back in the peloton, various GC teams are forming alliances and sending a couple of riders each to the front to help the chase.
109km to go: Meanwhile in the breakaway, 20 of the 21 riders will know that if Adam Yates wasn’t riding among them, they’d be allowed to open up a huge gap and get to duke out the stage win between them.
They’d very much like to get rid of him but their only hope is that Yates might be instructed to drop out of the lead group by his team bosses in order to maintain good relations with the teams they are currently infuriating. For now, he stays where he is and the gap is 50 seconds. If Yates wasn’t in the breakaway, the gap would probably be about 10 minutes.
111km to go: Carlos Rodriguez and Remco Evenepoel stand to lose the most if Adam Yates makes up loads of time today and all the other teams know it. The upshot? Their teams INEOS Grenadiers and Soudal Quick-Step are being forced to do all the work at the front of the peloton while the other teams and just leave them to it and refuse to help. The gap is 52 seconds.
112km to go: And what of the sprinters, you ask? Well, now. WIth this being one of only two remaining flat stages and no sprinters in the breakaway, will their teams try to chase down the escape party?
Alpecin-Deceuninck are unlikey to do so on behalf of Jasper Philipsen, because they have Mathieu van der Poel in the breakaway. Biniam Girmay’s Intermarché–Wanty teammates are unlikely to do so because they already have three stages under their belt already, are undser no pressure to deliver any more and will want to conserve energy ahead of the Pyrenees.
And as for Mark Cavendish? Well, he only has four teammates left, which limits what they can do. One of that quartet, Davide Ballerini, is in the breakaway and may fancy his chances of recording his first ever stage win.
124km to go: There are seven former Tour stage winners in the lead group, with Adam Yates among them. A teammate of Tadej Pogacar, this stage could scarcely be going more swimmingly for the duo and their team UAE Team Emirates. The gap goes out to 57 seconds.
Back in the peloton, INEOS Grenadiers and Soudal Quickstep are in a bit of a panic because the podium positions they are after (Carlos Rodriguez and Remco Evenepoel) come more and more under threat the further up the General Classification Adam Yates moves.
126km to go: The Visma-Lease A Bike group containing Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Evenepoel has been reeled in by the peloton and our 21-man breakaway have a gap of 48 seconds.
Juan Ayuso abandons the Tour
130km to go: The Spanish UAE Emirates rider, a lieutenant of race leader Tadej Pogacar, was ninth overall on General Classification but has quit the race. It’s no surprise as he’d been completely tailed off.
Updated
135km to go: It’s stage 13 and the man who has race No13, which superstition and tradition dictates is worn upside-down, has been dropped from the back of the peloton. Juan Ayuso (Team Emirates), for it is he, looks to be in serious difficulty and simply cannot cope with the speed of today’s stage.
137km to go: As things stand, we have a 23-man breakaway who have a 25-second lead over an 11-man group boasting the one-two-three on GC, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. The main bunch is a further 16 seconds back.
Updated
138km to go: Interesting. Such is the quality of the riders in the breakaway that the gap is gone out to 41 seconds. The riders of Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease A Bike are leading the chase and they, along with Tadej Pogacar and one of his teamates, have split off the front of the main bunch.
144km to go: The gap continues to hover around the 30-second mark, with the peloton (a) reluctant to let Adam Yates hare off over the horizon and (b) being led by riders who missed the break and have got a rocket from their extremely displeased team Directeur Sportifs.
146km to go: Your breakaway in a stage that has yet to settle down: Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Julien Bernard and Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) Kevin Geniets and Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), Mathieu Van der Poel and Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Deep breath …
Rui Costa, Neilson Powless and Marijn Van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Arnaud de Lie and Brent Van Moer (Lotto-dstny), Jakob Fuglsang and Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), Frank Van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan), Magnus Cort and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X).
148km to go: There are – I think – 23 riders in the front group and interestingly, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) is one of them. The British rider is currently eighth on General Classification, just 6min 59sec behind Tadej Pogacar. Michal Kwiatkoski (Ineos Grenadiers) is also in it. Like I said, serious heavywieghts.
152km to go: The gap remains at 28 seconds, so this breakaway could get reeled in yet.
152km to go: A breakaway group of about 20 riders have opened a gap of 37 seconds over the peloton but the riders of Jayco-AlUla are trying to close it down because they don’t have anybody in it and have been ordered to rectify the situation by their team boss.
There’s are some serious heavyweights in the escape party, which has representatives from 15 different teams. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Deceuninck), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Neilson Powless (Education–EasyPost) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) are among them.
They're away and racing in stage 13
164km to go: Following their parade through the neutralised zone and the conclusion of all our pre-stage admin, the riders have been given the signal to start racing today. Eurosport have highlighted the delicious prospect of crosswinds later in what could be an otherwise extremely boring stage.
It’s my third and final one to report on in this year’s Tour and I don’t mind saying I’m due a good stage because the previous two have been pretty dull transitional stages. My heart sank into my boots when I saw the topography of today’s!
Updated
Sickness in the peloton
Astana-Qazaqstan rider Michael Morkov was working as Mark Cavendish’s chief lead-out man but pulled out of the Tour before yesterday’s stage after testing positive for non-symptomatic Covid. While fit enough to continue, he abandoned in order to prevent spreading the virus to his teammates. Fred Wright also pulled out with illness yesterday following what he described as his “worst ever day on a bike”.
Pello Bilbao also abandoned during yesterday’s stage after spending two days struggling at the back of the field with an unspecified illness. Following the conclusion of yesterday’s stage, Cavendish raised his concerns that “there are riders riding with Covid” and almost all the riders are wearing protective masks between leaving their team buses and going to the signing on area.
Updated
Other withdrawals: Alpecin-Deceuninck riders Soren Kragh Andersen and Jonas Rickaert both finished outside the time limit yesterday, as did Astana-Qazaqstan’s Yevgeniy Fedorov, who I am reasonably certain was the man who hit the road furniture and went down with 11 kilometres to go, causing the pile-up that ended up doing for Roglic.
Lotto Dstny rider Jarrad Drizners landed extremely heavily in yesterday’s crash but is starting today. EF Education-EasyPost’s Neilson Powless is also going to see how he goes despite having a fractured wrist.
Updated
Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe: The loss of Primoz Roglic need not be a total disaster as it frees up the team’s sprinter Danny van Poppel to try and go for a stage win today and in the race’s only other flat stage.
The Australian Jai Hindley is currently 19th on GC, 19min 25sec behind Tadej Pogacar, so he could make a push for the top 10. Also, in Hindley and the Luxembourgish rider Bob Jungels, Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe have two men who know what it takes to win mountain stages of the Tour de France.
Girmay seals hat-trick while Cavendish seethes
Stage 12 report: Biniam Girmay won his third stage of this year’s Tour yesterday, while a frustrated Mark Cavendish was relegated to 68th after what he thought was a hard-fought fifth place finish and an unlucky Primoz Roglic lost almost over two minutes through no fault of his own. Jeremy Whittle reports from Villeneuve-sur-Lot on a stage that was simultaneously eventful and very boring .
The top five on General Classification
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 49hr 17min 49sec
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) +1min 06sec
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 14sec
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4min 20sec
5. Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +4min 40sec
Primoz Roglic abandons the Tour
Following his second crash in as many days, Primoz Roglic has decided enough is enough and pulled out of the race ahead of today’s stage 13. His Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team confirmed that their 34-year-old Slovenian team leader will not start today and is choosing instead to focus on “upcoming goals”.
“Primoz Roglic underwent careful examination by our medical team after yesterday’s stage and again this morning,” said a team statement. “The decision has been taken that he will not start [Friday]. We wish you a speedy recovery Primoz.”
Bad luck seems to follow Roglic around and the rider was helpless to avoid coming off his bike yesterday after an Astana rider’s collison with some traffic-dividers resulted in several other riders hitting the deck in front of him. His abandonment is a big blow for his new team Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, who had been hoping for a big performance from their star signing in this year’s Tour.
Stage 13: Agen to Pau (165.3km)
William Fotheringham’s stage 13 guide: The 75th time the Tour has visited the “belvedere of the Pyrenees.” After this there is only one sprint stage left, so the pressure will be on those fast men left in the race, particularly if they have missed out so far. There are a couple of climbs in the finale which will could catch out anyone who is struggling, but this will be another day for Philipsen, Jakobsen, Groenewegen et al.
