Tour de France 2023: Les Gets Portes du Soleil - Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc

 

Route Description: The thirteenth stage was from Les Gets Portes du Soleil to Morzine Les Portes du Soleil over 151.8 km. This stage started with 7 km of descent that would be neutralized by the race to avoid crashes due to the extreme speeds that would occur. This was followed by 20km of descending and flat roads. Next there would be an uncategorized climb which would lead to the mid-stage sprint point before a quick descent to the first category 1 climb, Col du Forclaz de Montrim. From the top of the Col de Forclaz to the next category 1 climb, the Col de la Croix Fry. This is almost immediately followed by the Category 3 climb of the Col des Aravis. A long descent down into the valley followed the Col des Aravis. Once in the valley there were a couple of kilometers of flat roads that led to the Category 2 Cote des Amerands. Immediately following the descent of the category 2 climb was the start of the climb to the finish line at Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc, which is rated a Category 1 climb.

Race Summary and Analysis: This stage started with a long section of neutralized start descending into the valley from Les Gets. Once the stage started there was a frantic pace of attacks and counterattacks that made for another quick start.  At one point all the agressive riding at the front of the peloton created a split that had Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) in the group behind the yellow jersey. His team would chase down the main peloton and a big regrouping would occur. Eventually an eight man break containing Neilson Powless (EF Education - EasyPost) would form, but it would never get more than a 12 second lead. This breakaway attempt was chased by Lidl-Trek and Cofidis who had no interest in letting this move go. Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) attack and rode away solo 29km into the stage. As the uncategorized climb began Julian Alaphillippe (Soudal-Quickstep) attacked and was joined by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) who caught Politt. A 27 rider group would form that was chasing Alaphillippe and Lutsenko.  This group would grow to a group of 37 containing  Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers), Olivier Le Gac, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Andrey Amador, Magnus Cort, Powless, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Mikel Landa, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Marco Haller, Patrik Konrad, Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Giulio Ciccone, Mathias Skjelmose, Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek), Nans Peters (Ag2r-Citröen), Van der Poel, Soren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Chris Hamilton (DSM-Firmenich), Michael Woods, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Dylan Teuns (Israel-PremierTech), Lawson Craddock, Luka Mezgec, Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Warren Barguil, Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-Samsic), Tobias Halland Johannessen, Torstein Traeen (Uno-X) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies). All the breaks were being kept on a short leash and were only able to gain a lead of 20 seconds. In the peloton a fan trying to take a selfie or picture with their phone hit Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) on the handlebars causing a massive pileup at the front of the peloton. Pogacar and Vingegaard managed to avoid getting caught up in the crash, but were held up getting their bicycles free from the mess. The peloton at that moment decided to neutralize the race itself and wait for all the rides to catch back up. The peloton essentially formed a line all the way across the road and rode at a slow pace. This is called the barrage and is often done after a chaotic crash in the peloton. The barrage allowed the break to get an eight minute lead over the peloton.After all the riders had caught back up from the crash which didn't result in any riders abandoning the stage, the peloton started to set a pace that slowly started to reverse the time gap. UAE and Jumbo-Visma didn't need to worry about any riders in the break taking the yellow jersey since most of them were very far from the top of the general classification. At the top of the first climb of the day Alaphillippe and Lutsenko would crest the climb in the lead, and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) beat Neilson Powless for the remaining points on hand. Lutsenko and Alaphillippe would be caught by the 37 rider chase group between the first and second climb. On the second climb of the day the lead group would start to disintegrate with riders being tailed off. Powless would be dropped and not score any additional king of the mountains points. Giulio Ciccone would take the maximum points on this climb and go into a tie with Powless on points. On the ascent of the third climb the first Rui Costa (Intermarche-Wanty-Circus) and then Marc Soler (UAE Emirates) would attack the break fearing the pace was too slow compared to the peloton. Wout Van Aert would attack over the top of the climb and would be joined in the descent of the third climb by Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) and Kris Neilands (Israel- Premiere Tech) after having caught Marc Soler. The quartet of riders would ride down the descent to the foot of the final two climbs until Neilands crashed in the descent trying to get a water bottle from the neutral bottle motorcycle. He would be ok to continue on, but be caught by the peloton. On the second category climb Wout Poels would drop his break partners and go for a solo victory. Wout Van Aert would chase him but would continue to lose time on the ascent to the finish line. In the peloton the GC favorites were gunning for a fight on the final climb. UAE set a pace that dropped all but Pogacar, Adam Yates, and Vingegaard. At one point Yates pulled away from Pogacar and Vingegaard. Pogacar looked like he was on his limit and that Vingegaard should attack, but he would not. In the end he may not have had any ability to attack, but this was smart tactically since Pogacar had two teammates up the road. Either way Pogacar did attack in the last 500 meters, and Vingegaard would follow the attack and even nearly pass him on the way to the line. Pogacar would cross ahead of Vingegaard, but no time difference or time bonus would be assessed. to either of them. Thus going into the second rest day Vingegaard maintains a 10 second lead on Pogacar.