That's all for today folks ...
If there are any late dramas involving sanctions for illegal feeds or anything else, we’ll mention them tomorrow. Stage 14 is over twice as long as today’s stage, but arguably a lot less tough - it’s due to start at around 11am (BST), so be sure to tune in for more velo fun.
Tomorrow's stage: Blagnac to Rodez (181.5km)
From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage preview: Out of the frying pan of the mountains into the fiery heat of the plains for a punchy uphill finish which will not suit a conventional sprinter. The Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet won here last time around and, after the spring he has enjoyed, few would bet against him or his fellow Belgian Philippe Gilbert.
Nouveau classement général, Contador revient dans le top 10 / New GC, @albertocontador is back in the Top 10 #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/hUgRbvSxPA
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2017
Warren Barguil finally gets his stage win. Having been denied so cruelly in a photo finish at the end of stage nine when he had already given his “winner’s” interview to French television, Warren Barguil won’t lose this one. There are no major changes at the head of the GC, although Mikel Landa has moved to fifth and is now 1min 09sec off the lead. He could closed the gap even further if his team leader Chris Froome hadn’t worked so hard in the chasing group. Things might be tense at the team dinner tonight.
Top-10 on Stage 13 #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/L5aq9iYDlY
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 14, 2017
Aru stays in yellow: The Italian Astana rider will stay in yellow as he finishes just behind Chris Froome, 1min 48sec behind Barguil.
Updated
Warren Barguil wins the stage!
It’s a real mountaineers’ sprint as Warren Barguil wins the stage for France on Bastille Day. Alberto Contador was nicely poised on his wheel but powerless to pass and finished second. I think Quintana was third and Landa fourth.
500m to go: Landa leads the group of four.
1.4km to go: The gap is down to 1min 54sec, with Simon Yates and Dan Martin between the leading quartet and the yellow jersey group.
Confusing tactics in the yellow jersey group. Chris Froome seems to be doing a lot more work than necessary, considering his team-mate Mikel Landa is in the lead quartet and riding for the maillot jaune. On ITV, Ned Boulting posits a theory I wholeheartedly agree with: Froome doesn’t want Landa in yellow.
6km to go: The yellow jersey group is hive of paranoia, with assorted GC contenders taking turns to peer suspiciously at each other. Meanwhile the gap to the lead group stretches to 2min 11sec. Rigoberto Uran has been caught, but they’ve let Dan Martin escape.
7km to go: Riding for GC, Mikel Landa is now doing all the work on the front of the leading quartet, while Dan Martin attacks the yellow jersey group.
8.7km: Contador, Quintana, Barguil and Landa still have a gap of 2min 04sec on the yellow jersey group, where various riders are bickering about what to do about Rigoberto Uran.
10km to go: Rigoberto Uran attacks the yellow jersey group and opens a gap. Michal Kwiatkowski and Aru move to try and close him down.
11km to go: Romain Bardet is nicely poised at the back of the yellow jersey group, tucked in behind Froome and Kwiatkowski. In the leading quartet, Warren Barguil has downed tools and is refusing to do a turn on the front. He has a Bastille Day stage win on his mind.
15km to go: The gap’s out to 1min 58sec as the Sky riders in the yellow jersey group laugh in the face of Fabio Aru’s pleas with them to do some work at the front. As Aru tries to hit the front and do some work himself, Kwiatkowski tries to block him. As things stand, Aru would stay in yellow tonight. Mike Landa is 2min 55sec behind him on GC and needs to pull another 57 seconds out of somewhere to take yellow. It’s not going to happen on this downhill finish.
16km to go: Dan Martin streaks clear at the front of the yellow jersey group on the descent in a bid to protect his fifth place on GC.
18km to go: The snaking descent to the finish continues apace, with our four leaders 1min 49sec ahead of the chasing yellow jersey group. It would be a fairly big surprise if the stage winner didn’t come from one of the front four.
23km to go: The yellow jersey group begin their descent, with the top four on GC all watching each other like hawks. Their hesitation allows Dan Martin and Simon Yates to rejoin the group.
25km to go: Barguil takes the King of the Mountain points on the summit of Mur de Peguere and him, Quintana, Landa and Contador begin their descent.
27.5km to go: Chris Froome attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group with Michal Kwiatkowski waiting for him a few yards up the road. Kwiatkowski, Froome, Aru, Louis Meintjes and Rigoberto Uran are riding in a line towards the summit of the final climb. They’ve dropped Dan Martin.
27.5km to go: Warren Barguil leads Nairo Quintana to within touching distance of the front two - the gap has been closed.
28km to go: Back in the yellow jersey group, Dan Martin is putting in the hard yards on the front in a bid to protect his own position in the GC. Romain Bardet and Fabio Aru will be delighted with his effort, as it helps them out too.
28km to go: Contador and Landa have just over a kilometre to go to the summit of Mur de Peguere and behind them, Quintana and Warren Barguil have them in their sights and can’t be much more than 10 or 12 seconds behind. The gradient is 18 per cent at the moment.
The yellow jersey group is down to just 10 riders on the Mur de Peguere. @chrisfroome is there & @michalkwiatek is waiting up ahead #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/mKCXYEZkal
— Team Sky 🚲 (@TeamSky) July 14, 2017
29km to go: ITV reveal that it took Alberto Contador and Mikel Landa 4min 41sec to cycle the last kilometre. That’s how uphill it is!
30km to go: Landa and Contador are out of their saddles and struggling to turn their pedals, while behind them Michal Kwiatkowski has been dropped by Quintana and Barguil. In the yellow jersey group, Sky’s Mikel Nieve has been dropped. Chris Froome has no team-mates left in the yellow jersey group, but he does have Kwiatkowski ahead of him up the road.
30km to go: Landa and Contador hit a stretch of the climb where supporters are not allowed congregate on either side of the road. The road is very narrow and the ramps are brutal - they’re almost at a standstill.
30km to go: Landa and Contador have a gap of 2min 35sec on the yellow jersey group with 4.2km to go to the summit of Mur de Peguere. The yellow jersey group has just passed under the Five Kilometres To The Top banner, with AG2R doing the work at the front.
32km to go: Alberto Contador grabs a bottle of water from a spectator and pours the contents over his head and back. His own head and back, I hasten to add ... not the spectator’s. That would be weird.
Jakob Fuglsang abandons: Having been struggling badly all day, the Astana rider decides that a life trying to ascend mountains with a fractured wrist and elbow is no life at all and climbs off his bike.
36km to go: In the Quintana/Barguil/Kwiatkowski group, Kwiatkowski is letting the other two riders do all the work. The plan, presumably, is for him to join the two leaders and then do enough work on the front of the group to get Landa into the yellow jersey. A surge from Contador means the gap between the leading duo and their three pursuers has widened to about 30 seconds again.
37km to go: That third ascent is to the summit of Mur de Péguère, a 9.3km climb with a gradient of 7.9%. Once they’ve crossed the summit, riders will have a 26 kilometre descent to the finish line.
38km to go: Contador and Landa have 2min 17sec on the yellow jersey group, but only about 10 seconds on Quintana, Kwiatkowski and Barguil with less than two kilometres to the beginning of the third ascent of the day.
An email from Neil Smith: “At last some decent racing tactics from the guys from Sky!” he writes. “Landa is obviously stronger than Froome this year, so send Landa up the road and in to the yellow jersey, making two Sky GC riders to mark, then let them (Landa and Froome) duke it out in the final time trial to see who is top dog. Win win for Sky.”
44km to go: Just 23 seconds separate Contador and Landa from Quintana, Kwitkowski and Barguil on the descent from the second of the day’s three big climbs - that’s going to be one hell of a breakaway group if they merge. Further back, Chris Froome and Romain Bardet have put the hammer down in a bid to try and catch up.
52km to go: Race leader Fabio Aru has been hopelessly exposed today. With no team-mates in support, he’s decided to stay with Froome and ahead of him on the road, the stuff of his worst nightmares as he slept last night is unfolding - two strong riders in a breakaway, one of whom can take his yellow jersey ... and there’s not a thing he can do about it.
55km to go: Warren Barguil is third over the summit, followed by Nairo Quintana and Michal Kwiatkowski. Sky will have two riders in the breakaway if Kwiatkowski can bridge the gap of about 20 seconds.
55km to go: Landa and Contador open the gap to the yellow jersey group to 2min 15sec - the Sky rider will soon be virtual leader of the Tour! The duo crest the the summit of the Col d’Agnes and prepare for the descent.
57km to go: Landa and Contador are working well together as they ascend Col d’Agnes, with Nairo Quintana leading a chasing quartet that is around 40 seconds behind them. The gap from Landa and Contador to the yellow jersey group is just over two minutes.
58km to go: Mikel Landa and Alberto Contador are 3.6km from the summit of Col d’Agnes, while Nairo Quintana leads the four-strong counter-attacking group behind them. In the yellow jersey group, race leader Fabio Aru is on his own without any team-mates around him in support, while Chris Froome still has a couple of team-mates with him.
Landa is smashing it. Interesting times chez Sky.
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) July 14, 2017
59km to go: Contador and Landa lead and are 1min 19sec clear of the yellow jersey group, which is 21 riders strong. Between them on the road, Nairo Quintana, Alexis Vuillermoz, Warren Barguil and Michal Kwiatkowski are trying to catch the two leaders.
60km to go: Mikel Landa does a turn in front and increases his and Contador’s lead to 1min 40sec. “You’re not going to close that gap with domestiques,” said David Millar, pointing out that any of the main GC contenders who wish to do so are going to have to close it themselves.
62km to go: Contador and Landa continue their assault on Col d’Agnes, having dropped Alessandro Di Marchi. There’s a gap of 47 seconds between them and the yellow jersey group, but - this group to be confirmed - Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky), Warren Barguil (Sunweb) and Alexis Vuillermoz Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale) are attempting to bridge the gap.
did @nedboulting just say the the peloton was Napoleon Blownapart on #BastilleDay @millarmind @itvcycling @bglendenning
— (((Tim Morton))) (@TimMorton2) July 14, 2017
63km to go: Contador and Landa drop Di Marchi and begin the 10km ascent to the summit of Col d’Agnes, the second of the day’s three Cat 1 climbs. It has a punishing gradient of 8.1 per cent.
63km to go: Jakob Fuglsang is struggling on the descent of the first climb and has become detached from his group of stragglers in the grupetto. His position on the bike is all wrong and he can’t brake properly; he’s crawling down the hill.
66km to go: With Fabio Aru and Rigoberto Uran isolated and left to their own devices as far as putting out fires is concerned, Sky have thrown a cat among the General Classification by launching Landa’s attack on the GC podium. He’s in seventh place at the moment, 2min 55sec off the lead.
Updated
69km to go: The peloton is in bits nearing the top of the first climb and Sky’s Sergio Henao is the latest to crack. “We’ve three races going on here,” says David Millar on Sky. “Contador is going for the stage win, Landa is riding for GC and Barguil is going for King of the Mountains points. They’re all pursuing different agendas and they’ll work together to achieve them.”
70km to go: Alone in front with a lead of 27 seconds, BMC rider Alessandro Di Marcho pedals onwards and upwards. Back in the yellow jersey group, Warren Barguil attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group and is immediately followed by Sky’s Mikel Landa and Trek’s Alberto Contador.
71km to go: Assorted riders are dropping out the back of the peloton, with Cannondale-Drapac rider Andrew Talansky and Sky’s Christian Knees among them. Earlier, Astana rider Andriy Grivko dropped out of the peloton to help nurse his team-mate Jakob Fuglsang along. Whenever possible, Fuglsang is sitting up in his saddle, riding withhis arms hanging down by his sides - it’s ridiculous.
72km to go: Alessandro Di Marcho puts a gap between himself and Sylvain Chavanel and Philippe Gilbert with a little over two kilometres to go to the summit of the first serious climb of the day: Col de Latrape. It’s a 5.6km long climb with a gradient of 7.3%.
An email from Paul Griffin: “In fairness to the UCI, water-gate could have been worse,” he writes. “Imagine how it would look if they had fined riders for drinking water on a climb exactly 50 years to the day since a rider died on a climb, partly as a result of dehydration. What? Oh.”
74km to go: Jakob Fuglsang is dropped from the peloton again and is quite clearly struggling to hold the left side of his handlebars, a state of affairs that is unsurprising considering he has a fractured wrist and elbow. Quite how much assistance he’ll be able to provide for Fabio Aru in this condition is anyone’s guess and one can’t help but feel that he’ll be a danger to himself and others on descents in the Pyrenees and Alps in this condition.
80km to go: There’s all sorts of excitement at the front of the race, where Alessandro De Marchi, Philippe Gilbert and Sylvain Chavanel have opened a gap of 1min 07sec to the peloton. However, a sizeable chase group is trying to get across to them. Of the nine riders in pursuit of the front three Bauke Mollema is the highest on General Classification, over 34 minutes off the pace.
Intermediate sprint result
1. Sylvain Chavanel 20 points
2. Philippe Gilbert 17
3. Alessandro DeMarchi 15
4. Michael Matthews 13
5. Marcel Kittel 11
6. Sonny Colbrelli 10
7. André Greipel 9
8. Nicolas Edet 8
9. Nicolas Roche 7
10. Marco Haller 6
11. Jack Bauer 5
12. Pierre-Luc Périchon 4
13. Greg Bole 3
14. Andrey Grivko 2
15. Florian Vachon 1
Arthur Vichot abandons: The FDJ rider hoists the white flag and climbs off his bike, meaning that his team is now reduced to just four of their original nine riders. His team-mates Ignatas Konovalovas, Jacopo Guarnieri, Mickael Delage and Arnaud Demare all finished outside the time limit on Stage Nine.
87km to go: Alessandro De Marchi, Philippe Gilbert and Sylvain Chavanel open a gap of 16 seconds on the bunch. Behind them, Matthews comes fourth in the intermediate sprint, with Kittel freewheeling over the line behind him.
88km to go: At the back of the bunch, Jakog Fuglsang is desperately trying to stay in touch. The intermediate sprint is coming up in a kilometre. Marcel Kittel leads the Green Jersey category with 352 points. Michael Matthews is his nearest rival on 222.
90km to go: Barguil and Voeckler are caught by a gang of riders, but there’s only a couple of seconds between them and the rest of the peloton.
90km to go: Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) and Warren Barguil (Sunweb) have opened a gap of just 11 seconds on the peloton. Voeckler looks behind him to see if anyone else is going to join them and shakes his head in frustration when he sees no help is forthcoming. Sky are controlling the bunch, apparently cycling at full gas so nobody can escape.
98km to go: Barguil and Voeckler open a gap of 12 seconds on the bunch. A few riders are trying to bridge the gap. At the back of the peloton, Fuglsang has already been dropped. It seems very unlikely he’ll finish this stage, given his injuries.
They're racing in Saint-Girons
Christian Prudhomme waves his white flag and right from the gun, Warren Barguil and Thomas Voeckler attack. Barguil is in the polka-dot jersey for King of the Mountains and his closest rival in that category, Thomas De Gendt, was at the back of the bunch in the pre-stage procession, showing no interest in attacking today after yesterday’s exertions.
Jakob Fuglsang update: The Astana rider rode yesterday’s stage with “small” fractures to his left elbow and wrist and is back on his bike today to provide what help he can for team leader Fabio Aru.
Updated
George Bennett speaks: Asked by ITV about the time penalty he incurred yesterday before seeing it reversed this morning, LottoNL–Jumbo rider George Bennett seems to have tongue firmly inserted in his cheek as he replies. “Yes, a cynic might look at it that way,” he deadpans when it’s put to him that the race jury has seemed very reluctant indeed to punish French riders for breaking the rules in this Tour.
He does point out, however, that the head of the jury is actually Belgian and goes on to say that he didn’t actually know there was a rule forbidding the taking on board of water in the final 20 kilometres of a stage and points out that “I’m not usually at the front so it’s never really applied to me because I’m usually out the back and nobody cares.”
Updated
The procession is underway ...
The riders are rolling through Saint-Girons in their daily pre-race procession behind the car containing race director Christian Prudhomme and the white flag he’ll wave in a few minutes to signal the start of racing.
@bglendenning Froome was on the radio often yesterday, presumably reporting heavy legs. He should have let Landa go to show Sky's strength.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) July 14, 2017
Great Minds Think Alike Dept “Like Mr FroomieDog, I too am a bit behind the pack,” writes Dean Taylor. “Apparently the TV highlights also picked up on SL2 - I was working late.”
An email from Sam Riley: “Brilliant race yesterday and proof we’ve got a proper bike race on our hands,” says Sam. “That final kilometre was like a track sprint at the end - as good/exciting as any flat sprint I’ve seen so far. Brave ride from Cummings yesterday. Landa is clearly stronger and should be allowed to progress/attack. Remember when you said that in 2012, Froome fans?! Elsewhere, the French clearly want a French winner and why not, they deserve one - allez Bardet! Finally, keep an eye on Uran who could be the surprise in this race. He’s a good time trialist and now he’s got those 20 seconds back overnight, he’s got a chance. What a race!”
An email from Dean Taylor: “What with Romain Bardet’s success yesterday, I was reminded all over again that I cannot hear (or read) his surname without thinking of On a Ragga Tip by SL2,” he says. “Perfect for a Bastille Day knees up.”
New @letour G.C:
— Le Tour de France UK (@letour_uk) July 13, 2017
2nd - Froome
5th - Martin
6th - Yates
🇬🇧🇮🇪🇬🇧#TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/b0YkmoX6Kz
#TDF2017 is as tight as it gets - this is the 1st time ever 3 riders are within 30" on GC after stage 12 (let alone 4 within 35").#TDFdata pic.twitter.com/RcCM5zcXNh
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 14, 2017
Storm clouds over Sky?
After Chris Froome lost his yellow jersey to Fabio Aru yesterday, his wingman Mikel Landa was fiulmed having what looked like a frank exchange of views with Sky’s head sports director Nicolas Portal. On the day’s steep final ramp to the finish line, where Froome lost 21 seconds in the final 300 metres, Landa had surged clear of his team leader with 200 metres to go in an unsuccessful attempt to win the stage.
If had he had finished in the top three instead of fourth, he would have taken a time bonus of one of Froome’s rivals, but many commentators feel he should have stayed with Froome to help him up the final metres of the climb. Exactly how much assistance he would have been able to provide at that point is open to debate.
“The last 200m turned into a sprint and instead of losing time, I played for the victory, and didn’t even look back,” said Landa. “I tried to set up Chris, and I didn’t see him, and he was a bit back.” The incident harked back to the famous incident further down the same mountain in 2012, when Chris Froome attacked his then team leader Bradley Wiggins, only to be ordered to cease and desist. Yesterday’s incident has raised questions about Landa’s loyalties to Froome, with the Spaniard rumoured to be leaving Sky for Movistar come season’s end. Personally, I think it’s all a wee bit of a storm in a teacup but would be interested in hearing anyone else’s views.
post-race meeting done @TeamSky pic.twitter.com/ty21z6KsM4
— Landa Meana (@MikelLandaMeana) July 13, 2017
Water-gate: the fall-out from yesterday's stage
Following the conclusion yesterday’s stage, Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) each received time penalties for taking illegal feeds after taking water from the side of the road inside the final 20 kilometres of the stage, ion direct contravention of Tour rules. Having stated they would not be reversing their decision, the Tour jury today did exactly that and cancelled the penalties.
The apparent ridiculousness of a rule forbidding cyclists from drinking water as they climb a mountain on a hot day is a debate for another day, but the jury’s decision to sanction Uran and Bennett in the first place caused much controversy and their subsequent u-turn has caused prompted even more.
After the duo were docked time yesterday, footage emerged of stage winner Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) appearing to accept a bottle and drink from it at the same time as Bennett. Bardet, who happens to be French and originally claimed he hadn’t done any such thing, was not punished and got to keep his stage win. When Cannondale-Drapac boss Jonathan Vaughters pointed out this unfair inconsistency last night, he was told there would be no change to the ruling.
This morning, the ruling was changed and the general feeling seems to be that, rather than punishing Bardet for breaking rule contravening rule 2.3.027 and enduring all the aggravation that would entail, it would be more prudent and less likely to prompt a modern Bastille Day storming of the barricades by French cycling fans, to “unpunish” the other two riders.
Stage 13: Saint-Girons to Foix (101km)
Today’s stage is short but unlikely to be sweet for the riders, many of whom will have enjoyed a Bastille Day lie-in after yesterday’s exertions and in preparation for the three Category 1 monsters that lie in wait today. The action doesn’t begin until 1.45pm (BST), but there’s plenty to discuss before that. William Fotheringham is our man in the Pyrenees and here is his take on today’s stage from the Guardian’s stage-by-stage preview.
Continuing the trend for short, sharp mountain stages, this has three first-cat climbs in just over 60 miles. That means all bets are off. It is short enough to encourage some serious attacks. The best candidates for this are Quintana’s Movistar, who are experts at shaking up this kind of mountain stage.
Updated
