Key Takeaways: Tour de France Stage 13

Breaking down how a day of all-out racing was won & what it tells us about the looming mountain showdown in the Pyrenees

Jasper Philipsen unleashed a devastating turn of speed to blow by Wout van Aert and Pascal Ackermann to win Stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France, which finished in Pau, the Tour’s quintessential gateway to the Pyrenees. Despite being isolated from his team and forced into the wind with nearly 500 meters remaining, the 26-year-old Belgian surged from deep in the field, serving as his own leadout man, before unleashing a turn of speed that saw him easily distance and hold off the rest of his stage-win rivals. Outside of the final sprint, the short stage featured non-stop action due to 3.5 hours of furious racing that saw Adam Yates slip into the early breakaway, Visma breaking up the peloton in the crosswinds multiple times, and big-name sprinters being dropped due to the all-out racing.

While the fight for the GC remained essentially unchanged, even with Visma-Lease a Bike and Jonas Vingegaard attempting to catch out rivals in the crosswinds, the overall standings saw significant churn due to podium contenders Primož Roglič and Juan Ayuso withdrawing from the race due to injuries sustained in yesterday’s late crash and a COVID infection. With a weekend of crucial mountain stages in the Pyrenees looming, these DNFs will likely have major implications for the battle for the overall victory.

Stage Top Five
1) Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0
2) Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +0
3) Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) +0
4) Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) +0
5) Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) +0

Green (Points) Jersey
1) Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty)-346pts
2) Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 271pts
3) Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies)-141pts

Current GC Top Five:
1) Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) +0
2) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +1’06
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1’14
4) João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4’20
5) Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos-Grenadiers) +4’40

Stage 13 Race Notebook

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161.7km-158.1km: Almost as soon as the stage starts, an extremely strong breakaway move, led by Mathieu van der Poel, rips clear in the strong crosswinds. An interesting wrinkle is that UAE’s Adam Yates, sitting 8th in the GC, is in the move, which puts immense pressure on teams with GC contenders sitting between 10th and 5th in the GC, like Ineos, who get to the front to try to keep the breakaway’s gap in check.

140km: With Ineos holding the gap at around 40 seconds, Visma notices Tadej Pogačar sitting in the wind and slightly out of position in a crosswind section, and immediately sends their entire team, led by Wout van Aert, to the front to quickly increase the pace.

139.9km: Van Aert’s acceleration and Visma’s coordination force Pogačar and his teammate João Almeida to react and sprint into the quickly disappearing sliver of the draft between the last Visma rider and the curb.

139.4km: Visma’s move is so strong that it quickly pulls their elite group off the front. Remco Evenepoel, who missed the split, is forced to burn serious matches to close the crosswind gap while riders like Ineos’ Carlos Rodríguez are stuck behind.

137.8km: Even with Pogačar and Almeida in the group and Yates waiting up ahead in the breakaway, Visma keeps pulling, even going as far as having Jonas Vingegaard pull through on the front, which seems like an incredibly liberal use of energy the day before a mountain stage and no serious GC contender caught out behind.

131.2km: Visma eventually realizes the futility of continuing to press Pogačar, an elite Classics champion, in the crosswinds and takes the pace off enough for the Ineos-led chase group to catch them.

60.7km: With the peloton still a minute behind a smaller version of the original break, Visma hits the front and increases the pace as soon as they turn back into the crosswinds. Pogačar, sitting behind a UAE teammate, is right on their wheels and won’t be fooled.

60.5km-55.9km: UAE, which has snuffed out the assault in advance, immediately begins pulling through, while Evenepoel, who is upfront alone, also gets in the rotation to stay safe. With all the top contenders present and accounted for, the only major casualties are sprinters like Dylan Groenewegen and Mark Cavendish.

3.6km: Coming to the final few kilometers, Pogačar attempts to eliminate the possibility of being stuck behind a crash or split by riding up front behind a UAE teammate. At the same time, Biniam Girmay fights to the wheels of his Intermarché leadout. Jasper Philipsen is sitting much further back in the field, with only a single teammate remaining in the group.

750m: A crash occurs and holds up Arnaud de Lie when an Arkéa leadout rider pulls off and sits up as De Lie’s leadout rider tries to slip between him and the barriers.

500m: With Visma’s Christophe Laporte leading out Wout van Aert through the final corner, we can see just how diminished the front group is after the crash as Tadej Pogačar sprints across the gap to contest the sprint. Jasper Philipsen is moving up in the wind on the right-hand side of the frame with no team assistance.

300m: Laporte pulls off, which leaves Van Aert on the front too early. Van Aert slows slightly and allows a fast-moving Philipsen to hit the front in an attempt to use his sprint as his own leadout. Pascal Ackermann is also attempting to move up, but he is forced to decelerate after Philipsen cuts right through his path.

200m: However, Philipsen hits the front with such speed that he slightly gaps Van Aert, who has to sprint to attempt to get into his slipstream. Behind, Girmay is buried near the back of the small bunch.

100m: As Philipsen opens up his sprint with Van Aert and Pascal Ackermann in his slipstream, his acceleration is so much higher than the others that he immediately begins to pull clear of everyone not directly in his draft.

Finish: Philipsen takes the stage win due to his speed being high enough that Van Aert can’t come around him even as he steps out to open his own sprint. Ackermann, who is clearly fit but not as explosive as the others at the moment, surfs wheels to yet another third place.

Three Key Takeaways