Sport Tour de France
24 2GS Saturday September 12 2020 | the times
One stage, two races. At the end of the
first, a quietly spoken Colombian Dani
Martínez had the greatest victory of his
career. Six minutes later the battle
between the general classification
riders ended with an emphatic show of
strength from the Tour de France
leader, Primoz Roglic. The yellow
jersey sits ever more comfortably on his
shoulders.
At the beginning of the day, Roglic’s
lead was 21sec over last year’s winner
Egan Bernal. At the end his lead had
jumped to 44sec over his Slovenian
compatriot Tadej Pogacar and to 59sec
over Bernal, who has dropped to third
overall. No matter what they say after-
wards, there are days at the Tour when
a contender thinks “maybe not this
year.” That thought will have struck
Bernal after this 13th stage.
Leaving Châtel-Guyon just before
midday, foreboding hung in the warm
and stultifying air of the Massif Central.
There were six categorised climbs
before the final brutal ascent to the
finish at Puy Mary — 190 kilometres
with hardly a stretch of flat road among
them. Difficulties for all and opportuni-
ties for a few.
Born in Finland and raised in the UK,
Charly Wegelius was a professional
rider for 11 years. He never won a race.
Since retiring he’s been running teams
and helping others to do what he
couldn’t do. Few read races as well as
Wegelius and when the Education First
(EF Pro Cycling) riders wondered what
was likely to happen on this leg of the
race, Wegelius could tell them.
A break would get away because it
wasn’t in anyone’s interests to chase it
down, he would have said. Three EF
riders were among the 17 who escaped.
Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team gave chase
for about an hour and then remem-
bered they were wasting energy on
riders who weren’t rivals.
Martínez, Hugh Carthy and Neilson
Powless were the three EF riders in the
escape. Carthy, a 26-year-old from
Preston in his first Tour, did a lot of
work as did Powless. Both then got
involved in counterattacks that their
fellow escapees had to chase down. All
that time Martínez was able to lie low.
The last hour was riveting. Max
Schachmann, a German with the Bora-
Hansgrohe team, attacked from the
lead group and built a 30-second lead.
Martínez countered but another Bora
rider, Lennard Kämna, was glued to his
back wheel. It seemed for a long time
that Schachmann would stay clear but
Martínez was relentless.
Martínez is a different kind of
Colombian. He prefers racing against
the clock to the cut and thrust of road
racing. With Kämna in tow, he time-tri-
alled his way up to the leader. They
came together on the steepest part ofthe climb, two kilometres from the fin-
ish. From there to the summit, it was
hell. Kämna had plenty left and twice
tried to get away from Martínez. Martí-
nez caught him and counter-attacked.
Kämna responded to that and the two
were together when Kämna flew past
Martínez with 150 metres left. Momen-
tarily blind-sided, the Colombian accel-
erated and slowly got to his rival,
surging past to win a terrific race.
Further down the mountain, the GC
race was taking a strange turn. Roglic’sStage 14 Today0km 194kmClermont-Ferrand to Lyon
194km(^441)
4 HC
S S
Stage 15 Tomorrow
0km 174.5km
Lyon to Grand Colombier
174.5km
Col de la
Biche
1,325m
Montee de la
Selle de
Fromentel
1,174m
Le Bouchage
208m
Côte de la
Croix-Rousse
239m
Grand
Colombier
Côte de la 1,501m
Duchére
264m
Côte de
Courreau
1,062m
Col du
Béal
1,390m
Côte du
chateau
d’Aulteribe
435m
Courpière
316m
2 3
S
Vichy
Saint-Etienne
Lyo n
Clermont
-Ferrand
Côte du
chateau
d’Aulteribe
Courpière
Côte de la
Croix-Rousse
Côte de la
Côte de Duchére
Courreau
Col du
Béal
10km
1
S
Grand
Colombier
Lyo n
Col de la Biche
Montee de la
Selle de Fromentel
Le Bouchage
10km
Thirteenth stage (Chatel-Guyon to Puy Mary Cantal,
191.5km) 1, D Felipe Martinez (Col, EF Pro Cycling)
5hr 1min 47sec; 2, L Kamna (Ger, Bora-Hansgrohe) at
4sec behind; 3, M Schachmann (Ger, Bora-
Hansgrohe) at 51sec behind; 4, V Madouas (Fr,
Groupama-FDJ) at 1min 33sec behind; 5, P Rolland
(Fr, B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) at 1min 42sec behind.
Overall leading positions 1, P Roglic (Slovenia, Team
Jumbo-Visma) 56hr 34min 35sec; 2, T Pogacar
(Slovenia, UAE Team Emirates) at 44sec behind; 3, E
Bernal (Col, Ineos Grenadiers) at 59sec behind; 4, R
Uran (Col, EF Pro Cycling) at 1min 10sec behind; 5, N
Quintana (Col, Team Arkea-Samsic) at 1min 12sec
behind. Selected other 7, A Yates (GB, Mitchelton-
Scott) at 1min 42sec behind.
Green jersey S Bennett (Ire, Deceuninck-Quick-Step)
252pts. Polka-dot jersey B Cosnefroy (Fr, AG2R La
Mondiale) 36pts. White jersey T Pogacar.
Bernal forced to limit losses
team had ridden at the front through
the first 160km but then with 30km to
go Ineos Grenadiers sent their work-
horses to the front. Luke Rowe, then
Dylan van Baarle, Jonathan Castrovie-
jo, Michal Kwiatkowski and Richard
Carapaz all did turns at the front.
In those minutes of Ineos’ driving, the
peloton of GC contenders splintered.
French riders Guillaume Martin (third
overall) and Romain Bardet (fourth)
were left behind. Soon Nairo Quintana
would be in trouble. After Ineos’s
equipiers burned themselves out,
Jumbo’s Tom Dumoulin went to the
front and soon Bernal was in trouble.
Pogacar doesn’t need much encour-
agement to attack and only Roglic
could follow. The two Slovenians had
too much for the others and with every
pedal stroke they were taking valuable
seconds. Bernal dug so deep to limit his
losses that he may pay over the next few
days. At the top he was shattered.
Ineos’s decision to increase the pace
on the approach to the Puy Mary hurt
no one as much as themselves. Bernal
would have lost some time to Roglic but
not as much if his team’s strategy had
been sensible. “I think with Ineos,” said
Jonathan Vaughters, head of the EF
team, “they have never had to be crea-
tive with their tactics. And now that
they need to be, they haven’t yet made
the adjustment.”
Roglic was asked who had had the
better day, Slovenia, who now have first
and second on GC, or Colombia who
won the stage and now have four riders
in the top six? “For me it was a
Slovenian day,” he said.
Bernal and Ineos had spoken of wait-
ing until the final week, when the
longer Alpine climbs would play to
their leader’s strength. Yesterday on the
killing roads of the Massif Central they
needed to stick to the plan.
Bernal was left behind on the final climb by Slovenians Roglic and Pogacar
WEEKEND
QUIZ
1 Which team conceded nine
goals in a Premier League match
when fielding a goalkeeper and
defender who were Canada
internationals?
2 Al Charron played rugby union in
the UK for which club?
3 At the 2003 World Cup, Canada’s
John Davison scored a 67-ball
century against which side?
4 Which former Canada
international footballer is married
to Karren Brady, the West Ham
United vice-chairman?
5 Which Villeneuve won the most
Formula One grands prix?
6 Owen Hargreaves and Fikayo
Tomori, two England internationals,
were born in which Canadian city?
7 Who was the first Canada-born
player to win a grand-slam singles
tennis title?
8 In which year did Canada make
their only appearance at the men’s
football World Cup?
9 In which year did Mike Weir win
the Masters?
10 Which Canadian sprinter has
won three medals at a single
Olympics?
11 Which Canada-born defender
won the FA Cup with Manchester
United in 1977?
12 Which Canadian cities have
hosted a summer or winter
Olympics?
13 In which year did England beat
the hosts Canada in the quarter-
finals of the women’s football
World Cup?
14 In which sport do the finalists
compete for the Grey Cup?
15 Which Scotland-born Burnley
player appeared for Canada
against Scotland in a friendly in
Edinburgh in 2017?
16 In which city are the Canadiens,
from the National Hockey League,
based?
17 Which Canada-born man is
regarded as the inventor of
basketball?
Questions by Bill Edgar
1, Ipswich Town; 2, Bristol; 3, Answers
West Indies; 4, Paul Peschisolido; 5,
Jacques; 6, Calgary; 7, Mary Pierce; 8,
1986; 9, 2003; 10, Andre De Grasse; 11,
Jimmy Nicholl; 12, Calgary, Vancouver,
Montreal; 13, 2015; 14, Canadian football;
15, Scott Arfield; 16, Montreal; 17, James
. Naismith
David Walsh
Puy Mary Cantal
ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/REUTERS