Stage 13 of Tour de France 2024 started in Agen, home of delicious prunes and dangerous rugby. The riders would travel south-west on a route, which tour organizer A.S.O. had designed as a final opportunity for sprinters to shine before the race would reach the long-anticipated mountain battles of the Pyrenees. The 165.3-kilometer route took the riders to Pau at the foot of Pyrenees.

Primoz Roglic (Team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) had unfortunately been forced to withdraw from this year’s Tour de France before today’s stage following a serious crash in the finale of yesterday’s stage. In addition to serious consequences from crashes, a Covid-19 epidemy was spreading in the Tour peloton, so more teams had joined EF Education-EasyPost in wearing protective masks before the stage start.

Despite Roglic’s accident in yesterday’s stage, action was intense from the very beginning of today’s stage and riders today appeared non-affected by the prospects of having to conquer stage 13 on a Friday.

Team EF Education-EasyPost riders were very active from the start as the team had not yet succeeded with their Tour tactics despite numerous powerful attempts with riders such as Richard Carapaz, Neilson Powless, and Ben Healy.

A twenty-four-man breakaway group fought their way to a viable lead and set out on a long, but possibly fruitful, mission of cheating the sprinters in the Tour peloton of an anticipated mass sprint battle across the finish line.

The breakaway group featured Denmark’s Magnus Cort (Team Uno-X Mobility), who had promised to dye his moustache in French “tricolore” colors for Bastille Day on July 14, if he gained enough followers on Instagram during this year’s Tour. Would “the broom from Bornholm” live up to his promises?

The complete Team Visma – Lease a Bike launched an attack from the front of the main peloton with 140 kilometers remaining of today’s stage 13. The strong sidewinds were a welcome opportunity of splitting the peloton into echelons and possibly gaining time in the general classification.

Only ten men were in the Visma – Lease a Bike group, including defending Tour de France Champion Jonas Vingegaard. However, yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) were in the group.

Further back, Pogacar had lost valuable team lieutenant Juan Ayuso, who got off his bike and abandoned the race because of Covid-19. It appeared concerning that several teams were allowing Covid-19-positive riders to remain part of the Tour de France peloton.

The Visma-Lease a Bike attack was later neutralized when several riders bridged from behind. A larger group of favorites was formed.

Quite fittingly, the Tour de France peloton passed through a town called “SOS” during stage 13 on a Friday. While the main alarms had now been called off between the general classification favorites in the race, the GC teams would likely have to do more hard work in the smaller peloton group that had been formed.

Meanwhile, the breakaway group now featured twenty-one riders and they had fought their way to a lead of more than one minute with 120 kilometers remaining. The breakaway group featured Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), who could potentially pose a threat to the general classification favorites in the Tour. The Visma – Lease a Bike riders in the reduced main peloton would therefore have to work hard to bridge the gap or at least keep the breakaway group on a tight leash.

Such hard work would likely not be welcome the day before the Tour reached the Pyrenees mountains. Ineos-Grenadiers and Soudal-QuickStep were also threatened by Yates’ presence in the front group, so they joined the chase and riders including Geraint Thomas made significant contributions.

Because of Adam Yates’ presence in the front group, the general classification favorites group was eager to reel in the breakaway optimists. Soudal-QuickStep, Ineos-Grenadiers, and Visma – Lease a Bike were spearheading the chase.

Magnus Cort had realized the breakaway group would not be viable with Yates in it, so he launched an attack with 95 kilometers remaining and was joined by Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos-Grenadiers), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), and Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ). Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) was working hard to make the leap to the four front men, but the American rider was still impacted by his crash in yesterday’s stage. Alas, Powless had to call off his chase and fall back to the chasing GC favorites group.

The wind speeds increased again, and this caused general classification favorites Evenepoel, Pogacar, and Vingegaard to launch attacks with approximately sixty kilometers remaining. The peloton split into multiple echelons and this in turn caused many of the riders from the early breakaway to be caught.

Now only the Cort, Kwiatkowski, Gregoire, Bernard group was in front and had an advantage of twenty seconds over the chasing GC favorites. Several sprinters, including Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Astana) had been dropped and were fighting in group 3 to rejoin the train before it was too late.

The speed in the favorites group was now so high that the front quartet was caught with 49 kilometers remaining. Their hard work in the breakaway had alas been in vain for the riders, but interesting to watch.

Ilan van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) and Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) crashed at the rear of the front group after van Wilder touched the rear wheel of teammate Remco Evenepoel. The riders got back on their bikes and carried on.

Group 2 caught group 1 with forty kilometers remaining of today’s stage 13, but Cavendish and other sprinters were still three minutes behind the front of the race.

Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) launched attacks after the two front groups had merged. Carapaz and Johannessen pressed on and had a lead of 16 seconds with 35 kilometers remaining.

Thirty kilometers from the finish line in Pau, the Carapaz-Johannessen duo had an advantage of twenty-three seconds. The Visma-Lease a Bike team was spending much valuable energy on chasing the front duo in support of their sprinter Wout van Aert. But should they rather conserve the energy for the Pyrenees Mountain stages of the weekend, where Jonas Vingegaard would need their support and fully charged batteries?

Carapaz had done much work to increase the advantage of the front duo to thirty-four seconds with twenty-four kilometers remaining.

Lotto-Dstny sent their rider Victor Campenaerts to the front of the chasing peloton and his hard work unfortunately caused the courageous Carapaz-Johannessen duo to be reeled in with twenty-one kilometers remaining.

This did not prevent other riders from attacking and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Brent van Moer (Lotto-Dstny), and Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies) tried their luck. Only Stuyven and van Moer managed to press on.

Christophe Laporte (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) bridged the gap, but Laporte was there to destroy the rhythm in the attack, so teammate Wout van Aert could sprint for the stage victory in Pau. The attackers were caught.

Magnus Cort was awarded the most combative rider of the stage and would be celebrated on the podium in Pau after the stage. Imagine Cort on the podium with a “tricolore”-colored moustache for Bastille Day on Sunday. It would certainly make the French very happy and a good promotional opportunity for the Dane and his Uno-X Mobility team.

Riders from the sprinter teams were preparing the mass sprint for their respective sprinters with four kilometers remaining.

Jonas Abrahamsen launched a solo attack with three kilometers remaining but was reeled in by Lotto-Dstny riders.

Biniam Girmay’s Intermarche-Wanty team was well-positioned at the front. The African rider was looking to claim his fourth stage victory in this year’s Tour de France.

A crash occurred in the final kilometer. The crash brought down riders including Lotto-Dstny’s Arnaud de Lie and Astana men and the injuries looked serious. Riders were bleeding and perhaps unconscious. A sprint would now be launched from a minimized rider group.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) launched his sprint and won the stage ahead of Wout van Aert (Team Visma – Lease a Bike). Pascal Ackermann took third for Team PremierTech. Girmay finished fourth.

The general classification was unchanged. Pogacar leads the general classification 01:06 minutes ahead of Evenepoel and 01:14 minutes ahead of Vingegaard. Saturday’s stage 14 of Tour de France 2024 will take the riders into the Pyrenees mountains where exciting mountain battles await.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from Tour de France 2024.

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