Warren Barguil (Sunweb) won stage 13 of the Tour de France in Foix at the end of a gripping afternoon of Bastille Day racing in the Pyrenees. Fabio Aru (Astana) retained his yellow jersey but saw Chris Froome's Sky teammate Mikel Landa add himself to the list of contenders for final overall victory on a stage that raised many more questions than it answered.
Barguil beat Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Landa in a four-man sprint, while Aru came across the line 1:48 back in a group containing Froome, Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac). Aru remains 6 seconds clear of Froome and 25 seconds ahead of Bardet in the overall standings, but Landa is now 5th overall at 1:09. Quintana – seeming irretrievably distanced 24 hours earlier – has moved to within 2:07 of the overall lead.
With three mountain passes crammed into a little more than 100 kilometres, the second day in the Pyrenees was always going to prove difficult to control for the maillot jaune Aru, particularly as his Astana team is so depleted by injury. Despite his isolation, the Sardinian rode with considerable sangfroid in a fragmented and reduced yellow jersey group, basing his strategy squarely around staying in contact with Froome. Aru was promptly across to Froome's wheel when the three-time Tour winner unsheathed a stinging attack near the summit of the final climb, the Mur de Péguère.
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"From the spectators' point of view (it was) very exciting, but I stayed calm, in spite of the attacks," said Aru, whose chief lieutenant Jakob Fuglsang abandoned early on with two fractures in his wrist. "My teammates have fallen, some are injured, and that's why I was alone. The next few days will be better for them. I know what counts is to get to the end of each evening."
Indeed, by day's end, it was Froome who appeared more discommoded by the way the stage had unfolded, accelerating repeatedly on the run-in to Foix even though his teammate Landa was up the road in the winning break.
"Yesterday was a difficult day for me but today I felt a lot better and we played a good strategic game with our team," Froome said. "We've got a lot of faith in Mikel and I think that he showed today that he's a real threat now for the overall title in Paris. It's a great card for us to play especially now that Astana don't have the numbers to control the race."
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