Warren Barguil powered to victory on stage 13 of the Tour de France today, outsprinting his breakaway companions in Foix for a phenomenal victory on Bastille Day.
Team Sunweb finally achieved their goal of a stage success having had a few close calls with a second place for Michael Matthews on stage three, followed by a near miss on stage nine for Barguil on a day where he took over the lead in the king of the mountains competition.
Barguil beat Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Mikel Landa (Team Sky) in the sprint, as race leader Fabio Aru (Astana) finished 1’48” behind in a group including Chris Froome (Team Sky), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac). Aru retained the yellow jersey.
“This is an incredible victory to take, it hasn’t sunk in properly yet,” explained a euphoric Barguil. “We were close already on Sunday, but we kept our confidence and chosed an offensive strategy from the beginning today.
“After I made it up the first climb I knew that I wasn’t going to give up. Before I knew it I was at 800 metres to go looking at the other guys and I knew who would attack and when and I used that to my advantage as a lead-out for my sprint. I’ve been so close to the win quite a few times now so to have the winning feeling back today is incredible. Of course a victory on Bastille day makes this even more special.”
Team Sunweb’s Tour de France coach Aike Visbeek added: “We believed in the team’s ability to take a stage victory at the Tour and everybody has remained committed to that goal so it’s great that all of our hard work has paid off. Our aim today was for Warren to ride offensively both for the stage win and to defend his KOM jersey. He remained motivated and calm going into the final, pacing everything to perfection. This victory is great for the team morale and a well deserved win after some challenging days in the mountains.”
French victory on Bastille day !