Stage 13: Saturday, July 17 – Rodez to Revel (196km)

Not the usual transition stage between the Alps and the Pyrenees – a brief but leg-bending climb 7km from the end is the non-standard feature. The final kick upwards might make it a big ask for the sprinters.

An early 3-man break rode off the front: Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky), and Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom). No intermediate sprint points for green jersey leader Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) today.

The main field controlled matters, with HTC-Columbia and Lampre sharing the pace-making to bring the break back into the fold. The reprise happened 10km from home, right at the start of that sting-in-the-tail climb.

Half-way up that climb, Alessandro Balan (BMC) attacked off the front, and briefly appeared to have stolen an unassailable march on the peloton. But Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) put in a grimacing effort to bridge the gap. The Italian was unable to match Vino’s next burst of acceleration, and dropped back into the main field. Vinokourov, now alone at the front, gave full effort to stay away from the pack.

Just prior to the final descent, Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) flew off the front and tried to reach the Kazakh. But he didn’t ultimately have the legs, and was absorbed by the pack 2km from home.

Vino kept the hammer down and rolled over for a fine individual stage victory. Behind him, the sprinters in the main field fought it out over 2nd place, with Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) coming in ahead of Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre).

Vinokourov was visibly irritated at finishing third yesterday, so this stage win must have been particularly sweet. The stain on his character of his blood-doping ban (2007-2009) still hangs heavily, though.

The leaders of the overall standing stay the same – Schleck leads Contador by 31 seconds, followed by Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel), Denis Menchov (Rabobank), and Jurgen ven den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

The green jersey battle between Thor Hushovd and Alessandro Petacchi continues, with the jersey back on the Italian’s shoulders by dint of his having finished 3rd to Hushovd’s 8th today. Cavendish’s fine second place today keeps him in contention to wear green in Paris. The points competition is effectively a three-horse race, Robbie McEwen (Katusha) having dropped back.

Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) holds on to the King of the Mountains jersey.

Leader board after this stage:

Overall GC
Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)

Points
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre)

King of the Mountains
Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)

Young Rider
Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)

Tomorrow’s stage takes us into the Pyrenees – 184.5km from Revel to Ax-3-Domaines. A brutal last third of the stage, featuring the hors categorie climb of the 2,001m Port de Paliheres, followed by a break-neck descent, and then the final climb up to the 1,350m Ax-3-Domaines. Expect huge changes in overall standings tomorrow.

And a daft little prediction from me, based on no more than a hunch. Lance Armstrong (Radio Shack) again had an off-day today, managing to crash (non-seriously) in the neutral zone, before the stage proper was even underway. Armstrong has has several days as a passenger near the back of the main field since he fell out of contention for the GC overall. We know this is his last Tour. Could the Texan be saving his legs for a final blaze-of-glory stage win to remember him by, somewhere up in the Pyrenees? I have a suspicion that he is hatching a plan…