It was the big day we were all waiting for and stage 13 certainly didn’t disappoint. The racing at the front of the field as outstanding, however Richie Porte’s hopes and dreams for a podium spot on the Champs-Élysées came to an abrupt end. C’est la vie, as they say. There will be many more chances for Richie.
It’s irrelevant now, but I had written a lengthy piece which compared Nibali’s and Porte’s results when they’ve raced against each other. In short, it was very difficult to predict who would could out-perform the other. Nibali’s past ITT results were quite comparable to Porte’s in recent years, and as we’ve seen before, one can out-climb the other on a good day. But nothing can predict a bad day and as we’ve seen all too many times, the race can be turned upside down in an instant.
Now there’s no doubt about who is the strongest rider of this Tour. Nibali is on better form than anyone would have expected. He attacked and almost effortlessly rode away from the front of the field to take the win and stamp his authority on the Tour de France. As they way, it’s still a long way to Paris and anything could happen, but it’s hard to see anyone making up time on Nibali barring disaster.
Read the full race report and results from Stage 13 of the 2014 Tour de France here.
Read Richie Porte’s and David Brailsford’s reactions to stage 13 here.
Enjoy the photos from stage 13 courtesy of BrakeThrough Media (follow on Instagram and Twitter) and Cor Vos. More to come…
- Black bow on the jersey of Giant - Shimano riders in memory of MH17 plane crash in the Ukraine.
- The Publicity Caravan has been around since 1930. Every day of the Tour, approximately 250 vehicles parade an hour ahead of the race as spectators wait for the peloton. The caravan has a bit of everything: dance, music, skits, and above all promotional objects (hats, key chains, pens, candy, water bottles, etc).
- The main break of the day was started by Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and was joined by Brice Feillu (Bretagne-Seche), Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida, Daniel Oss (BMC), Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale), Rudy Molard (Cofidis), Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura) and got a maximum of 4 minutes on the peloton.
- Daniel Navarro had big ambitions for today’s stage that took place close to the scene of his first big professional win in the Criterium du Dauphiné. However, he began to feel sick in the morning ended up abandoning the race. Not a good way to spend your birthday.
- The descent off the Col de Palaquit saw a crash from one of Nibali’s key lieutenants, Jakob Fuglsang. The Danish rider reportedly hit a falled bidon (allegedly Lotto Belisol’s Jurgen Van Den Broeck’s bottle) before hitting the tarmac. He appeared in some pain as he mounted up, jersey torn, and would go on to finish more than half an hour behind his teammate Nibali. Van Den Broeck later replied on twitter saying, “I hope Fuglsang is ok. Didn’t throw away my water bottle, it fell out of the bidon cage. Apologies for crash and injuries … I feel really sorry for it … I really could not do anything about it.”
- Alessandro De Marchi was the last man standing from the original breakaway group but was caught with 14km remaining on the final climb.
- With 11.9km to go Thibaud Pinot (FDJ.fr) attacked with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) covering the move. About a kilometre later it was Leopold Konig (NetApp-Endura) who went clear as Pinot drifted back to the bunch. Rafael Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) joined Konig as Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) tried to bridge across as well.
- With 3.3km left in the race Vincenzo Nibali didn’t so much attack Majka and Konig after he caught them, as simply ride away from them. While everyone else at the pointy end of the race looked like they were suffering, Nibali appeared calm and comfortable as he increased the tempo, building up his lead.
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- There is no more doubt who is the strongest rider in the Tour de France.
- Van Garderen maintained a steady pace and moved up to fifth overall, 5:19 back of Nibali.
- “I don’t think I dealt with the heat really well,” Richie Porte stated, shortly after the stage outside the bus. “It’s one of those things. It’s a massive shame but we’ll just see what happens tomorrow.” Porte rolled in 8 minutes 48 seconds back and slipped to 16th overall, 11 minutes 11 seconds back. He will try to fight back but it seems inconceivable that he can claw back enough time to reach the final podium. “It is a shame. I feel more for my team-mates who have been brilliant for me every day,” he said. “You know, if it happens to me, it can happen to other guys too. We’ll just keep on pushing.”
- Jakob Fuglsang talks to the press after finishing 30:19 behind his team captain. “I just kept thinking that if I could stop sliding it would be okay – because the more you slide, the more it is going to hurt,” he said after the race. Team manager Alexander Vinokourov indicated that Fuglsang is expected to start tomorrow: “Tomorrow is going to be a tough stage, we hope we have Fuglsang back because it’s a hard day and Vincenzo needs his team. Some of our team were not as strong as others from other teams.”