Tour de France LIVE: Tadej Pogacar attacks Jonas Vingegaard as Michal Kwiatkowski wins stage 13

The fight for the yellow jersey took another twist as Tadej Pogacar attacked Jonas Vingegaard on the Grand Colombier

Who will win the Tour de France?

Former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski soloed to the top of the Grand Colombier mountain on the Tour de France and Tadej Pogacar cut a little more time off Jonas Vingegaard’s lead in the fight for the yellow jersey on Friday.

Kwiatkowski, a seasoned veteran with the Ineos Grenadiers team, was part of an early breakaway and went solo about 11 kilometers from the daunting mountaintop finish.

Vingegaard and Pogacar watched each other closely. Well shepherded by his UAE Team Emirates teammates, Pogacar did not attack before the last 500 meters of the 17.4-kilometer-long ascent, yet managed to gain some precious time.

Pogacar crossed the line in third position behind Kwiatkowski and Maxim van Gils, four seconds ahead of Vingegaard. He was awarded a time bonus of four seconds for his third-place finish to cut Vingegaard’s overall lead to just nine seconds ahead of two big mountain stages scheduled in the Alps over the weekend before Monday’s second rest day.

Follow all the latest from today’s stage 13 below.

Tour de France – stage 13 LIVE

• Preview: Stage 13 is 138km route to summit finish on Grand Colombier
• 80km to go: 20-man breakaway escapes up the road
• 17km to go: Dwindling breakaway begins Grand Colombier climb
• 4km to go: Solo attacker Kwiatkowski closes in on stage 13 win
• Ineos’s Michal Kwiatkowski wins stage 13!
• Tadej Pogacar cuts Jonas Vingegaard’s overall lead to nine seconds

[14 July 2023 16:01 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – UAE Emirates take stock

5.5km to go: UAE Emirates have four riders left on the front, including Pogacar, and they all seem to be taking a moment to chat to their team radio – what are they plotting? It seems like they might have given up on catching Kwiatkowski.

[14 July 2023 15:58 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Kwiatkowski remains around 3min clear of peloton

6.5km to go: So Ineos’s Michael Kwiatkowski remains a minute clear of the chasing trio (that gap is growing) and around three minutes up on the peloton (that gap is shrinking). He has to be the stage-win favourite right now, despite the charge of UAE Emirates. If anything, UAE are keeping a controlled pace, perhaps happy to keep things steady and let Pogacar attack explosively near the top, rather than raising the pace to try to win the stage and gain a few bonus seconds.

[14 July 2023 15:55 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Vingegaard locked on Pogacar’s wheel

7km to go: The yellow jersey, Jonas Vingegaard, is stuck to the rear wheel of Tadej Pogacar. He will hope to still be there when this stage comes to an end. Soler moves aside from the nose of the peloton after a big turn, and lets Grossschartner take over.

[14 July 2023 15:52 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – UAE Emirates working hard for Pogacar

9km to go: UAE Emirates continue to drive their way up the Grand Colombier towards this summit finish, giving chase to Kwiatkowski. Marc Soler is working hard to drag Pogacar forwards before handing over to fellow UAE teammates Felix Grossschartner, Mikkel Bjerg, Rafal Majka and Adam Yates.

[14 July 2023 15:47 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Kwiatkowski leads stage 13 solo

10.5km to go: Ineos Grenadiers’ Michal Kwiatkowski is a super domestique who can do more than just help others, and he has some big wins on his palmares, not least a 2020 Tour de France stage win in the Alps. He has a 30 second lead over the chasing trio (Shaw, Van Gils and Tejada) and 3min 20sec over the peloton, still led by UAE Emirates who are pumping hard to keep in touch.

[14 July 2023 15:44 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Kwiatkowski attacks

11km to go: Kwiatkowski attacks! He skips past Belgian 23-year-old Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny), 26-year-old Colombian Harold Tejada (Astana) and Britain’s 27-year-old James Shaw (EF Education) and now the experienced rider is now out in front on his own.

[14 July 2023 15:41 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Pacher cracks

13km to go: So, 4km into this climb and the sole leader, Pacher, has suddenly cracked and fallen back – there probably won’t be a French winner on Bastille Day, then. He’s been overtaken by James Shaw, Maxim van Gils and Harold Tejada take over the race lead as a trio. They are about 3min 30sec ahead of the peloton, which is being led furiously by UAE Emirates and shedding riders left, right and centre.

[14 July 2023 15:35 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Pacher attacks on the front

14km to go: The breakaway is crumbling on the Colombier but Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) has launched an attack off the front.

[14 July 2023 15:29 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – the breakaway begins the Colombier climb

17km to go: Here we go! The breakaway has begun the brutally steep, long Grand Colombier. This is going to be fascinating. A reminder of exactly what the riders face:

The Col du Grand Colombier is a long, draining climb (letour)

[14 July 2023 15:23 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France LIVE – Caleb Ewan abandons the race

This is sad news: Australian sprint star Caleb Ewan has abandoned the race. He was spotted struggling to keep in touch with the peloton and he’s now stepped off his bike and got into the Lotto-Dstny team car. Presumably he was feeling the effects of an illness of some kind.

Ewan finished in the top three on a couple of different stages, memorably being pipped on the line by Jasper Philipsen in Nogano, but it wasn’t to be and his drought without a Tour de France stage win will extend to four years.

Caleb Ewan has pulled out of the race (Reuters)