photo credits @ ASO
Michal Kwiatkowski delivered some overdue joy for Ineos Grenadiers with a brilliant solo victory atop the Grand Colombier in stage 13 of the Tour de France today, while Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) trimmed the gap to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in the fight for the yellow jersey with a blistering last-gasp attack.
Pogacar swept up most of the escapees with his final flurry to take third and four bonus seconds, chiseling eight in total back on Vingegaard, to leave the gap in the overall standings at nine seconds. But given UAE Team Emirates had ridden on the front for the whole day, and worked so hard on the climb, it seemed a small reward.
Today’s stage was all about the final climb, with the day’s break taking wildly different approaches as the race headed uphill. Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) was the first to strike out before being quickly swallowed up by James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Maxim van Gils (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan).
But, it was Kwiatkowski who was the first to look like they had timed their effort sensibly as he sailed past that trio with 11km remaining. Behind, UAE was turning themselves inside out for Pogacar, but it was not enough to shake off a group of GC favorites – nor close significantly on Kwiatkowski, who held on for a comfortable win.
Pogacar made a late bid for yellow, but even though his acceleration was blistering, he only managed to put a handful of seconds into Vingegaard.
Race Highlights
Kwiatkowski, Tejada, van Gils, Nelson Oliveira, Georg Zimmermann, Jasper Stuyven, Hugo Houle, Pacher, Shaw, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Matej Mohoric, Pierre Latour, Alberto Bettiol, Kasper Asgreen, Mike Teunissen, Fred Wright, Anthon Charmig, Luca Mozzato, Adrien Petit and Cees Bol marked the day’s first breakaway effort, with UAE Team Emirates immediately setting off in pursuit.
From there, the escapees went on to establish an advantage of around two minutes over the peloton, a gap that would later extend to almost four minutes at the base of the final climb.
Pacher decided to attack along the toughest section of the climb, with only a handful of riders attempting to chase down the Frenchman, who was later caught by the group.
Shortly thereafter, Kwiatkowski bridged his way to the leaders, subsequently attacking with 12 kilometers to go. While, Shaw, Mohoric, van Gils and Tejada set off in pursuit, there was no catching the Polish rider, who steadily opened up his advantage to two minutes during the last 3 kilometers of the climb.
Meanwhile, Adam Yates tried to make his way to Kwiatkowski during the final kilometer. But, he too failed to reel in the former World Champion, who reached the summit in solo fashion.
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