Poland's Kwiatkowski wins Tour de France stage 13, Vingegaard retains lead

The two-time Tour de France champion from Slovenia further cut into Jonas Vingegaard’s lead with a sudden acceleration near the finish of a long and brutal ascent concluding Friday's Stage 13.

"Even if we didn’t get the stage win, it was still a victory in the battle for the yellow jersey,” Pogacar said.

Former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski soloed to the top of the Grand Colombier mountain to claim a second career Tour stage win.

Kwiatkowski, a seasoned veteran with the Ineos Grenadiers team, was part of an early breakaway and went solo about 11 kilometers from the daunting Jura mountaintop finish.

“It was a crazy experience,” Kwiatkowski said. “When I entered the breakaway, I thought this is just a free ticket to maybe the bottom of the climb.”

With Vingegaard and Pogacar watching each other closely until the very end, Kwiatkowski managed to stay away.

But Pogacar was the fastest on the ascent he mastered three years ago en route to his first Tour win.

Well shepherded by his UAE Team Emirates teammates, Pogacar did not attack until the last 500 meters of the 17.4-kilometer-long ascent, yet managed to gain some precious time.

Pogacar crossed the line in third position behind Kwiatkowski and Maxim van Gils, four seconds ahead of Vingegaard. He was awarded a time bonus of four seconds for his third-place finish to cut Vingegaard's overall lead to just nine seconds ahead of two big mountain stages in the Alps this weekend before Monday's second rest day.

“The Tour is still long and we are in a good situation,” Pogacar added. “We are looking at this kind of opportunities to take back some seconds. It was a really good team performance. Everybody can take a lot of confidence and motivation from today.”

Jai Hindley