Martinez wins stage 13 as Roglic strengthens Tour lead

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Primoz Roglic tightened his grip on the Tour de France overall lead as he dropped defending champion Egan Bernal in the final ascent of a gruelling 13th stage in the Massif Central on Friday.

Daniel Martinez prevailed from the breakaway at the end of a punishing 191.5-km trek from Chatel-Guyon before the big guns battled it out in the finale of the short, yet brutal climb up to the Puy de Mary, where the average gradient rose above 11%.

Egan Bernal could not sustain the pace when Tadej Pogacar accelerated, with fellow Slovenian Roglic the only rider able to follow. The duo crossed the line 38 seconds ahead of a grimacing Bernal, who slipped to third in the general classification, 59 seconds off the pace.

Pogacar is now second, 44 seconds behind Roglic.

“The Tour is not finished yet, there is still a lot of things that can happen, a lot of riders are still in the mix,” said Roglic.

Eight riders are still within two minutes but Roglic has been the most impressive, never losing his cool despite Pogacar’s repeated onslaughts.

“I don’t want to bother looking at names and comparing myself with others. I’ll continue to focus on myself,” said Vuelta champion Roglic.

Bernal saw Roglic and Pogacar fade in the distance as his face turned into a mask of pain in the last two kilometres of the ascent to the Puy Mary.

The Colombian collapsed on his bike after the finish, mumbling: “I looked at my numbers, they’re good, the others are just better.”

Friday’s stage signalled the end of French hopes as Romain Bardet, who started the day in fourth place overall 30 seconds off the pace, ended up 2:30 behind Roglic after the 2016 runner-up took a heavy tumble earlier.

Tour de France 2020 – stage 13 results (Châtel-Guyon – Pas de Peyrol):

1Daniel Martinez (EF Pro Cycling)

5:01:47

2Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe)

+04”

3Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe)

+51”

4Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)

+01’33”

5Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept)

+01’42”

6Nicolas Edet (Cofidis)

+01’53”

7Simon Geschke (CCC)

+02’35”

8Marc Soler (Movistar)

+02’43”

9Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling)

+03’18”

10David De la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates)

+03’52”

11Daniel Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation)

+04’31”

12Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

+06’05”

13Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

,,

14Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)

+06’18”

15Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren)

,,

16Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+06’21”

17Neilson Powless (EF Pro Cycling)

+06’29”

18Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)

+06’43”

19Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling)

,,

20Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

+06’45”

Tour de France 2020 – general classification after stage 13:

1Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

56:34:35

2Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

+44”

3Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)

+59”

4Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling)

+01’10”

5Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic)

+01’12”

6Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+01’31”

7Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

+01’42”

8Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren)

+01’55”

9Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)

+02’06”

10Enric Mas (Movistar)

+02’54”

11Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale)

+03’00”

12Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)

+03’11”

13Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma)

+04’32”

14Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)

+05’11”

15Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

+06’22”

16Damiano Caruso (Bahrain McLaren)

+07’02”

17Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept)

+14’34”

18Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling)

+26’12”

19Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic)

+27’11”

20Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma)

+33’30”

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