Greg van Avermaet's fierce sprint secures stage 13 of Tour de France
Briton Chris Froome retains overall lead with no change among his nearest challengers
Greg van Avermaet of the BMC team won stage 13 of the Tour de France with a finishing burst of speed on Friday that pushed Peter Sagan into second place for the fourth time at this year’s race.
Sagan was kicking himself after he eased up in the final metres.
“My stupid mistake,” said the Tinkoff-Saxo rider.
My stupid mistake. I'm very angry and disappointed. I sat down and all the pain comes. Bad
For most of the flat-to-hilly stage from Muret deep in southern France, a group of six low-placed riders rode in a breakaway at the front of the race. But the trailing main pack of riders sped up furiously as the finish in Rodez approached and caught the last of the escapees inside the last kilomete.
In the final uphill sprint, Van Avermaet and Sagan surged to the front. The Belgian rider won that duel narrowly. Feeling that a rider – he didn’t know it was Sagan – was still on his wheel, the stage winner pushed to the very end. Sagan was up in his saddle, sprinting behind him, but mistimed his finish, sitting back down too early.
“I’m very angry and disappointed,” Sagan said. “I sat down and all the pain comes. Bad.”
“It turned crazy at the end,” Froome said of the finish. But he was happy that he has one less stage to complete before Paris.
Van Avermaet said winning was “incredible.”
“I was dead, really dead,” he said. “I thought I’d caught second. I pushed for the line and was so happy he didn’t overtake me.”
