Peter Sagan (BORA – hansgrohe) claimed his third stage win of the 2018 Tour de France as he outsprinted Alexander Kristoff (UAE-Team Emirates) and Arnaud Démare (Groupama – FDJ) in Valence.

152 riders started stage 13 in Bourg d’Oisans and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) was a non-starter due to a broken vertebrae in a crash 4 kilometres before the finish at Alpe d’Huez. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Tom Scully (Education First) rode away from the peloton at kilometre 2 and Michael Schär (BMC) and Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis) joined them at kilometre 29 with all other counter attackers being brought back by the peloton.

Their maximum advantage was 3’30″ before the Côte de Brié at kilometre 30. Bora-Hansgrohe, Groupama-FDJ and UAE Team Emirates then combined forces at the head of the peloton to maintain a steady gap around two minutes. Lukas Pöstlberger, Tobias Ludvigsson and Darwin Atapuma were their respective riders designated for pulling.

The advantage of the leading quartet was reduced to 55″ with 55 kilometres to go, shortly after Scully crested the category 4 Côte de Sainte-Eulalie-en-Royans. The peloton calculated their efforts in order to not bring the breakaway back too early so it was still 30″ with 30km to go.

De Gendt who won his tenth intermediate sprint of the Tour de France at Saint-Quentin-sur-Isère (km 71) was first to sit up. Schär forged on by himself with 23 kilometres remaining. The Swiss rider was awarded the prize of most combative rider of the day and he was caught 6 kilometres before the line.

Successively, the LottoNL-Jumbo, Trek-Segafredo and Bora-Hansgrohe teams seized the reins of the peloton in the streets of Valence. Groupama-FDJ moved to the front with 1km to go. In the absence of Fernando Gaviria, Philippe Gilbert (Quick Step) tried his luck by himself. Groupama-FDJ brought him back to give Arnaud Démare a good lead out but the Frenchman was overtaken by Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates).

The Slovakian scored his third stage win at the Tour this year, equalling his all-time record. It’s his 42nd stage podium, just as many as Gustave Garrigou, Francis Pélissier and Sean Kelly.

Peter Sagan: “This is a fantastic victory. I’m so happy to have won, it was something very good for me, personally. Once again, I have to thank my teammates for their dedication and work. It was a flat stage after the tough mountains, so everybody recovered a little bit in the group. I think they all seemed happy to stay in the bunch and go through a more relaxed stage. ”

My timing in the sprint might now seem perfect but I think I was probably a little bit late. I was a bit behind with 600 meters to go and on the last climb, I tried to bring myself to the front. I then stayed on the wheel of Kristoff and I’m very happy to have beaten them. However, the Tour de France is far from over. We have to make sure we stay out of trouble, we get to Paris healthy and we cross the finish line on the Champs-Elysées.”

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