Stage 13 - Lucky For Some

July 14 – Bastille Day. Back in the EPO era, intermediate stages like this used to be the domain of breakaways. But over recent years the sprinters have wanted even more glory and so we often see the day’s break chased down in the battle for the green jersey.  And that is exactly what happened on Stage 13, a 217km journey from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateux to Le Cap d’Agde. Andre Greipel was the winner in a semi-depleted peleton, defeating Peter Sagan in a photo finish with Edvald Boasson Hagen third. With the majority of the sprinters shelled off the back on the day’s final cat-3 climb, they were absent of the finish, allowing Sagan to extend his lead in the green jersey competition to over 80 points from Greipel and Matt Goss. He is now certain to win it as long as he makes it to Paris.

In what would otherwise have been a non-event of a stage, the reason the sprinters were blown out on the final climb was an unexpected attack from Cadel Evans. While he led over the top of the climb, he was unable to hold off the evil empire who slowly paced leader Bradley Wiggins back to Evans over the remainder of the climb. It is good to see Cadel trying something though to break up the complete and utter boredom and predictability that this race is going to provide over the final week.

Other than that there is not too much to add. I’m sure many Brits will be creaming themselves over seeing Bradley Wiggins lead out the sprint for Boasson Hagen in the yellow jersey but I don’t care. In fact my interest in the race is often severely diminished on any day that Greipel wins.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Frederick Kessiakoff

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock Mclean Tweet of the Day

@englishwhistler – Good to see Le Tour visiting one of the Teletubbies on Monday, Po will be pleased. #tdf #Letour