Tour de France: Stage 13 Debrief

Very quick one today...

Thor hit 112kmph on the descent to the
finish. For the benefit of Americans and
old-fashioned Brits, that's 69mph.

Well, who could have ever guessed sprinter Thor Hushovd was going to win this one? Not only did he win, he quite literally hammered the mortal upstarts and crossed the line way ahead of anyone else while the majority of the pack were still some way up the road trying to get ahead of one another.

Other than Thor, many of the big names remained content to lurk in the peloton today. We thought that one of the purebred grimpeurs - perhaps Contador or Andy Schleck - would emerge and grab a few valuable pointeroonies from the Cat 1 climb, but they were saving energy and 'twas not to be.

The Col d'Aubisque was as spectacular as ever and the thick fog at the top no problem at all for the thousands of spectators who had turned out to cheer the riders on, many of them choosing the usual strange outfits as appears to be one of the effects of rarified air.

However, despite the Aubisque's presence, today was not really a mountain stage. Saturday, which features  six categorised climbs including two very respectable Cat 1s and an absolute whopper of an Hors-Categorie in Plateau de Beille, will be something else entirely. Expect the standings to look very different by this time tomorrow, because there are a lot of serious mountain experts in the top ten and just beyond and they'll be wanting a piece of the action.

Stage 13 Results:

1. HUSHOVD Thor 3h 47' 36"  
2. MONCOUTIE David + 00' 10"
3. ROY Jérémy + 00' 26"
4. BAK Lars + 05' 00"
5. PINEAU Jérôme + 05' 02"
6. HAGEN Edvald Boasson + 05' 03"
7. GUSEV Vladimir + 05' 08"
8. PETACCHI Alessandro + 05' 16"
9. TJALLINGII Maarten + 05' 16"
10. GILBERT Philippe + 06' 48"


Overall General Classification results following Stage 13:

1. VOECKLER Thomas 55h 49' 57"  
2. SCHLECK Frank + 01' 49"
3. EVANS Cadel + 02' 06"
4. SCHLECK Andy + 02' 17"
5. BASSO Ivan  + 03' 16"
6. CUNEGO Damiano  + 03' 22"
7. CONTADOR Alberto + 04' 00"
8. SANCHEZ Samuel + 04' 11"
9. GILBERT Philippe + 04' 35"
10. DANIELSON Tom + 04' 35"


Points: Mark Cavendish; Mountains: Jeremy Roy; Youth: Arnold Jeanesson; Team: Garmin Cervelo; Combative: Jeremy Roy.