Bennett drops two spots in France
Kiwi rider George Bennett slipped from ninth to eleventh in the Tour de France’s general classification after stage 13.
The Lotto NL-Jumbo rider yesterday crossed the line in 22nd place, 4m 08s behind stage winner Frenchman Warren Barguil.
Bennett is just over a minute off 10th-placed Alberto Contador.
Italian Fabio Aru kept hold of the leader’s yellow jersey, with defending champion Chris Froome 6s back. French rider Romain Bardet was third, still 25 seconds behind.
Meanwhile, the UCI have lifted the 20s time penalty on Bennett for grabbing a water bottle from a fan during stage 12.
Barguil delivered a stylish victory to France on Bastille Day, winning a fast and furious truncated stage 13 where Aru had to work hard to retain his overall race lead.
Barguil rode into the finish in Foix as part of a four-man group and took the win with a final sprint after adeptly negotiating the last U-bend on a bridge over the Ariege River.
At 101km, the stage from SaintGirons was the shortest of the race, barring the two time trials. With three Pyrenees climbs, it delivered exactly what Tour organisers were hoping: full-on racing, with the French victory the cherry on top.
Part chess-match, part test of speed and climbing strength, Froome and his Team Sky used an array of tactics to try to regain the initiative after he lost the yellow jersey on Friday to Aru, cracking on a savage final climb.
Sky sent Froome’s team-mate, Mikel Landa, racing off ahead on the first climb in a quick succession of three tough ascents. He was joined by fellow Spaniard Contador, looking to make a splash on what has otherwise has been a lacklustre Tour for the two-time champion.
Together, they built a lead but were caught by Nairo Quintana, a podium finisher at three previous Tours, and by Barguil in the closing section of the last climb.
From there, the foursome sped together into Foix, overlooked by its imposing 11th century castle decorated with a French tricolore of red, white and blue. There, Barguil set French hearts alight with the win.
“It’s incredible,” the rider for the Sunweb team said. “I said before the start it would be good if a Frenchman won. It’s exceptional.”
Because of its brevity, the stage was raced at relentless pace, with riders attacking from the first metres to the last. Barguil covered the distance in 21⁄2 hours, half the time of some of the Tour’s longer stages with twice as much road to cover.
Quintana zoomed over the line in second, failing to catch Barguil with his final sprint, with Contador third. By finishing in that leading pack well ahead of the likes of Aru and Froome, Landa clawed back valuable time in the overall standings, giving Sky an intriguing card to play in coming stages.
From seventh overall at the start of the stage, Landa is fifth, just 1m 09s behind Aru. That means the Italian will have to watch both Sky riders, not just Froome, like a hawk in the last week of racing before the July 23 finish in Paris. If either Landa or Froome tries zooming off ahead of him, Aru will have to chase them both or risk losing his yellow jersey.
“It’s perfect for us,” Froome said. “Maybe we can play the same way in the coming days.”
Aru stuck closely to Froome on the stage, showing a cool head and strong legs as he rode much of the way without any team-mates, who couldn’t stay with the pace of his group that included several of the top riders in the thrillingly close fight for the overall Tour victory.
While Sky unfurled its tactical plan, Aru suffered the blow of losing one of the strongest riders on his Astana team, Jakob Fuglsang, during the stage, the last of two in the Pyrenees. The Danish rider bravely took the stage start with fractures in his left wrist and elbow sustained in a crash earlier in the week. Struggling from the outset, he later abandoned.