Greg van Avermaet of the BMC team won Stage 13 of the Tour de France with a finishing burst of speed Friday that pushed Peter Sagan into second place for the fourth time at this year’s race.
Sagan was kicking himself after he eased up in the final meters (yards).
”My stupid mistake,” said the Tinkoff-Saxo rider.
For most of the flat-to-hilly stage from Muret deep in southern France, a group of six low-placed riders rode in a breakaway at the front of the race. But the trailing main pack of riders sped up furiously as the finish in Rodez approached and caught the last of the escapees inside the last kilometer (last half-mile).
In the final uphill sprint, Van Avermaet and Sagan surged to the front. The Belgian rider won that duel by just a few meters. Feeling that a rider – he didn’t know it was Sagan – was still on his wheel, the stage winner pushed to the very end. Sagan was up in his saddle, sprinting behind him, but mistimed his finish, sitting back down too early.
”I’m very angry and disappointed,” Sagan said. ”I sat down and all the pain comes. Bad.”
Race leader Chris Froome and his closest podium challengers finished safely. Froome’s lead remains unchanged, with Tejay van Garderen of BMC still 2 minutes, 52 seconds back and Nairo Quintana still third, 3:09 back.
”It turned crazy at the end,” Froome said of the finish. But he was happy that he has one less stage to complete before Paris.
Van Avermaet said winning was ”incredible.”
”I was dead, really dead,” he said. ”I thought I’d caught second. I pushed for the line and was so happy he didn’t overtake me.”
Stage 13 Brief Results:
- Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC Racing Team) 4:43:42
- Peter Sagan(Czech/ Tinkoff-Saxo) Â s.t.
- Jan Bakelants, AG2R La Mondiale at :03
- John Degenkolb, Team Giant-Alpecin at :07
- Paul Martens, Team LottoNL – Jumbo at :07
- Christopher Froome, Team Sky at :07
- Vincenzo Nibali, Astana Pro Team at :07
- Alberto Contador, Tinkoff-Saxo at :07
- Alejandro Valverde, Movistar at :07
- Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC RACING TEAM, at :07
General Classification After Stage 13:
- Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 51:34:21″
- Tejay van Garderen (U.S. / BMC Racing) +2:52″
- Nairo Quintana (Colombia / Movistar) +3:09″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +3:58″
- Geraint Thomas (Britain / Team Sky) +4:03″
- Alberto Contador (Spain / Tinkoff – Saxo) +4:04″
- Robert Gesink (Netherlands / LottoNL) +5:32″
- Tony Gallopin (France / Lotto) +7:32″
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) +7:47″
- Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek) +8:02″
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