Michal Kwiatkowski wins in Grand Colombier, Tadej Pogacar getting closer to Jonas Vingegaard
Michal Kwiatkowski wins in Grand Colombier, Tadej Pogacar getting closer to Jonas Vingegaard
Ineos Grenadiers’ 33-year-old Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski, the 2014 world champion and winner of, among other things, the 2017 Milan-San Remo, won by a breakaway on stage 13 of the Tour de France, 137.8 kilometers from Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne to Grand Colombier, with the final 17.4 kilometers uphill hors categorie with an average gradient of 7.1 percent.
Kwiatkowski gradually pulled away from all the breakaway companions who animated this stage of the Grande Boucle with him, and the only one immediately behind him was Belgian Maxim Van Gils, 48 seconds off. But in third place, and this matters a great deal for the overall standings, was Tadej Pogacar.
The Slovenian came within 50 seconds of Kwiatkowski, but in the last kilometer he once again left his great rival, Dane Jonas Vingegaard, behind him again, pulling four seconds off and gaining another four seconds in bonus time. Therefore now the gap between the two in the overall standings is only 9 seconds in favor of Vingegaard, third is Australian Jai Hindley at 2’51”.
Tomorrow’s alpine stage promises spectacle, 151.8 km from Annemasse to Morzine Les Portes du Soleil with five mountain grand prix: Col de Saxel after 18.7 km (944 meters, 4.2 km at 4.6%, 3rd category), Col de Cou after 35.3 km (1116 meters, 7 km at 7.4%, 1st category), Col de Feu after 52.7 km (1117 meters, 5.8 km at 7.8%, 1st category), Col de la Ramaz after 101.6 km (1619 meters, 13.9 km at 7.1%, 1st category), Col de Joux Plane after 139.8 km (1691 meters, 11.6 km at 8.5%, hors categorie), and finally the last 12 km of very difficult descent to Morzine.
