First victory for the Ineos Grenadiers in this edition of the Tour de France. Michal Kwiatkowski was part of the escape, which also included Harold Tejadaand stayed with stage 13 that ended in the Grand Colombier, a special category port in which Tadej Pogacar lost a few seconds to Jonas Vingegaard in the fight for the yellow jersey.
At the end of the day, Egan Bernal spoke to the media and expressed his joy at his teammate’s victory: “The team had been looking for a stage since the first day and today things happened against all odds because the stage wasn’t looking good for a break, but Kwiato was very strong and things happened”.
First of three high mountain stages that will end the second week of competition on the Tour. Demanding territory, though For Egan, the toughness of this race goes beyond the terrain or profile of each fraction.
“All the stages are hard here, It is not known if the flat or the climb is harder. There are two stages ahead with a lot of unevenness and the fatigue of the Tour. The key is to recover and do the basic things very well, sleep, be calm and calm. Stay focused for the last part of the Tour”, commented the 2019 champion.
Gregarious role without giving up the dream of a stage
With respect to whether the objective now will be to seek more stage victories or support Carlos Rodríguez and Thomas Pidcock to defend their places in the top 10 overall, The Colombian said: “A bit of both. It depends on how the stage is. Some of us will try to escape and the rest will stay with Carlitos and Tom. Not having the responsibility of shooting at the top of the stage, we have options to break away”.
Egan Bernal arrived in box 49 of the thirteenth stage of the Tour de France, more than 14 minutes behind his teammate and remains as the best Colombian in the general classification in position 26 at 50’28” from Vingegaard.