Tour’s 13th stage produces drama, intrigue

SAINT-AMAND-MONTROND, France – Wily Tour de France riders who used the wind and worked together to trap their rivals turned a trek across the flats of central France into a thriller on Friday, as exciting and, for the most unfortunate, as decisive as any spectacular day in the mountains.

Yellow jersey holder Chris Froome lost a chunk of his race lead but not enough to gravely endanger the Briton heading toward what is shaping up to be an intriguing finale in the Alps. The team of Alberto Contador dealt the former two-time champion back into the game, putting him close enough to Froome to make the last week interesting. A rear-wheel failure at the worst time dropped Alejandro Valverde from second place to nowhere. And Mark Cavendish got a 25th stage win to lift the British sprinter to a third-place tie on the all-time list of cycling’s premier race.

All this on a Stage 13 that looked beforehand as though it might be a dud. But the riders are ensuring there are no dull days at the 100th Tour. Much of the media buildup to this first Tour since the fall of Lance Armstrong focused on cycling’s fight against doping. But from Stage 1, the sporting drama and the Tour’s visuals have come to the fore.

Much of Friday’s mischief was cooked up by two teams – Belkin and Omega Pharma-QuickStep – that happened to share the same hotel the night before. With two-thirds of the stage left to race, a time when the pack often prefers to take things easy and let breakaway riders speed ahead for a while, Omega powered as a group to the front and rode like furies. They soon got additional support from Belkin. Their sudden acceleration and sustained high speed caught dozens of other riders off guard. The pack split into three groups. The breeze blowing across the long, undulating straights made it impossible for stragglers to catch up. Among them was Marcel Kittel, winner of three stages at this Tour.

Omega rider Jerome Pineau hinted it was no coincidence that his team and Belkin worked together.

“Look at the list of hotels and look who we were with yesterday,” he said.

His teammate, Sylvain Chavanel, added: “You need some friends in the peloton.”

Belkin rider Sep Vanmarcke said his Dutch team long ago identified this stage as a chance to spring a trap.

“We had planned this. The team leaders knew exactly where we would go,” he said. “We knew there would be a lot of side wind there and that would be the best place to go.”