Bernal slips back as Roglic powers ahead on Tour
PRIMOZ ROGLIC stamped his authority on the Tour as defending champion Egan Bernal slipped back on a punishing stage 13 to the summit on Puy Mary. After Dani Martinez claimed his first career Tour stage win in something of a slow-motion sprint with Lennard Kamna from a breakaway, gradients nearing 20 per cent carved up the general classification when the main contenders arrived a little over six minutes later. In what is becoming a common pattern in this Tour, Roglic followed an attack from close friend and fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar late on the 191.5km stage from Chatel-Guyon, and together they put 38 seconds into Bernal. The result is that Jumbo-Visma’s Roglic is looking ever more comfortable in yellow, while Pogacar climbs above Bernal into second place, now 44 seconds back and ruing the 81 seconds lost in crosswinds on stage seven. ‘It was a really nice day, I’m super happy,’ Roglic said. ‘As long as you can gain time every second is to your advantage. ‘I’m really happy at the end, we were two Slovenians at the top. ‘It’s not just me, I have the jersey, but our whole team — everyone needs to do his job — and all together so far we’re doing a really nice race.’ Though Roglic has looked the stronger rider throughout the Tour so far, this was the first time he had definitively dropped Bernal — until now what had been a 21-second gap between them was all derived from bonus seconds. Now the Colombian’s deficit stands at 59 seconds and the 23-year-old had to admit he simply could not keep up as he handed the best young rider’s jersey over to Pogacar. Of the Irish trio, Dan Martin did best finishing 11th on the stage, four and a half minutes off the pace and is 46th overall for Israel Start Up Nation. Nicolas Roche finished 95th for Sunbweb and is 70th overall while Sam Bennett of QuickStep is 153rd overall after his 159thplaced finish but will resume his green jersey battle with Peter Sagan today.