Tour de France 2023
- Ineos rider claims solo victory in Grand Colombier summit finish
- Tadej Pogacar made up eight seconds on the leader with a late attack
Michal Kwiatkowski clinched a solo victory on stage 13 of the Tour de France when Tadej Pogacar turned the screw on his rival, the defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, a little further by clawing back eight more seconds.
Kwiatkowski, a former world road race champion and also a 2020 Tour stage winner in La Roche-sur-Foron, joined the day’s breakaway with 12km to go at the top of the Grand Colombier climb overlooking Culoz in the Ain department. The 33-year-old Ineos Grenadiers rider was the last survivor of a lead group that broke apart at the bottom of the climb.
Tour de France 2023: Kwiatkowski wins stage 13 as Pogacar regains seconds – live
“I rate that pretty highly,” he said of his stage win, “but it was a bit unexpected because all day I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’ What is my goal?’ So this win was totally unexpected.”
Predicted Bastille Day fireworks between UAE team Emirates’ Pogacar and Jumbo-Visma’s Vingegaard were muted for most of the climb and the rivalry only came to life in the final 500 meters as the Slovenian attacked in search of bonus seconds.
Vingegaard had completed the 17km climb on the back of his rival while Pogacar, winner of the same summit in 2020, was waiting for his moment.
When the attack came, the frontrunner again struggled to close the gap. Pogacar held him off to the finish line, halving the gap between the pair to nine seconds with two potentially crucial Alpine stages still to come.
However, Vingegaard makes no mention of a Pogacar ambush. Isn’t he worried, he was asked, considering his lead has shrunk from almost a minute to a handful of seconds?
“No,” he replied with characteristic directness. “If I win, I win; If I don’t do it, I don’t do it.” While acknowledging it was a “beautiful rivalry,” he added, “I’m confident in myself and in what I think are my strengths. “I’m still very well.”
He too claimed, as he had since the Grand Depart in Bilbao, that this race cannot be won in a matter of seconds. “Yes, I still think so,” he said.
“History has shown that something always happens on the really long, tough stages. It could be decided in seconds, but I don’t think so.”
For Kwiatkowski it was a good start to three days of mountain stages. “I had my worst day of this tour on Thursday when I was in the back and was really suffering,” he said. “Today I had my best legs.”
As the breakaway exited the famously tight hairpins that characterize the lower section of the climb, Kwiatkowski, who had also been in the breakaway on Tuesday’s Issoire stage, attacked alone to break free.
But the former Milan-San Remo winner feared attacks from the favourites, particularly Pogacar and Vingegaard, would speed up the chasing pack.
“I thought they would come sooner or later,” he said, “but given the flat section and the tailwind, the last seven kilometers were fast. I got through the tough moments and I thought, ‘Maybe this will all work out for me.’”
Despite the distance and climbs, the Polish rider didn’t shy away from the challenge of staying clear for the remainder of the long, steep climb and drove across the finish line, giving the British team their first victory of the 2023 Tour.
“It’s great to have this win so far after such a tough tour. I’ve tried so many times and I’m beyond grateful,” he said. “Today I want to celebrate. Everything is great.”
While Kwiatkowski savored his victory, the Ineos Grenadiers could reflect on another persistent performance from their young talents Carlos Rodriguez, fourth overall, and Tom Pidcock, eighth.
The next two mountain stages, after Morzine on Saturday and Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc on Sunday, will be crucial to their top-five hopes. Pidcock, winner of Alpe d’Huez on Bastille Day in 2022, said: “Two pretty iconic climbs, two wins, that’s very special.”
Still, he remained stunned by Pogacar’s power. “It’s a 17km climb and he just rode the end like it was a bunch sprint,” said Pidcock. “I probably made 700 [watts] or something, so God knows what he did.”
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