German nails third lap win
LE CAP D’AGDE, France—German André Greipel snatched his third Tour de France win this year when he outsprinted Slovakian prodigy Peter Sagan to claim the 13th stage on Saturday.
Greipel, who also won stages four and five, prevailed at the end of a tricky 217kilometer ride from St. Paul Trois Chateaux, timing his effort to perfection and resisting green jersey holder Sagan’s fight back on the line.
Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, who benefited from Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins’ unexpected lead-out effort in the final kilometer, took third place.
“It is sometimes best to get to the front and repay a friend of mine a little bit,” said Wiggins, who retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The Briton and his Team Sky controlled proceedings during the tricky, windy stage, and a couple of attempts by defending champion Cadel Evans on Mont St Clair, 16 km from the finish, were easily reined in.
Overall, Wiggins still leads teammate Chris Froome by 2:05 and Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali by 2:23 as the Tour heads into the last week and the Pyrenees.
Mont St Clair is a short climb but it proved too steep for some of the leading sprinters in the peloton, such as world champion Mark Cavendish and Australia’s Matthew Goss, who finished more than eight minutes off the pace.
Cavendish earned the consolation of receiving an award at the finish as the Tour’s best-ever sprinter in a poll by sports weekly l’Equipe Magazine.
Greipel and Sagan, by contrast, reached the top close to the leading bunch and managed to return in the descent.
“This win is a special one with Mont St Clair so close to the finish. I managed to hang on in this climb and then Lars Bak took me back in the bunch,” said Greipel, who quashed the last breakaway attempt by Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov and Swiss Michael Albasini in the last 15 km.
Sunday’s 14th stage will be a 191-km mountainous ride from Limoux to Foix featuring the punishing ascent to the Mur de Peguere.