Tour de France: Michal Kwiatkowski wins on Grand Colombier as Tadej Pogacar cuts gaps to Jonas Vingegaard

Stage 13 of the Tour de France saw the breakaway succeed once again, with Michal Kwiatkowski conquering the Grand Colombier. Tadej Pogacar shortened the gap to Jonas Vingegaard but the lead remains in the hands of the reigning champion.

Stage 13 was a key day for the overall classification with the brutal summit finish at the Grand Colombier however the start perfectly flat. A short stage at the Tour this afternoon, there were plenty attacks early on before a breakaway was formed, containing 20 riders.

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Harold Tejada, Michal Kwiatkowski, Maxim van Gils, Nelson Oliveira, Georg Zimmermann, Jasper Stuyven, Hugo Houle, Quentin Pacher, James Shaw, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Matej Mohoric, Pierre Latour, Alberto Bettiol, Kasper Asgreen, Mike Teunissen, Fred Wright, Anthon Charmig, Luca Mozzato, Adrien Petit and Cees Bol formed the group, with UAE Team Emirates immediatelly setting off in chase.

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The breakaway's chances looked very dim as they entered the hilly section of the day with only two minutes of advantage, with some riders starting to lose contact, however then the gap began to expand as UAE looked to preserve it's riders. In front no attacks took place all the way into the bottom of the final climb, with almost four minutes of buffer over the peloton.

UAE led the peloton all throughout the first half of the climb, but the breakaway split completely. Quentin Pacher attacked at first section and perhaps toughest of the whole ascent, with only a few riders chasing. In the famous Lacets he was caught by a small group, with Michal Kwiatkowski bridging across and then attacking with 12 kilometers to go. James Shaw, Matej Mohoric, Maxim van Gils and Harold Tejada set off in the chase but losing time.

The race stabilized afterwards, with most riders waiting for the finale to strike. Kwiatkowski kept two minutes of lead with three kilometers to go. With two to go Adam Yates made a move behind, only a few riders responded but the GC group split with the main favourites in front. Kwiatkowski rode to victory at the summit of the climb with a comfortable gap.

Maxim van Gils survived to finish second on the day, behind Tadej Pogacar rode to third, he attacked with 500 meters to go and made an all-out acceleration to the finish, taking a few seconds on Jonas Vingegaard but not enough to take over the race lead.

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