Tour de France: Michal Kwiatkowski wins atop Grand Colombier as Tadej Pogacar trims gap to Jonas Vingegaard

Michal Kwiatkowski delivered some overdue joy for Ineos Grenadiers with a brilliant solo win atop Grand Colombier on Stage 13 as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) trimmed the gap to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in the yellow jersey with a blistering last-gasp attack. Pogacar swept up most of the escapees with his final flurry to take third and four bonus seconds, chiselling eight in total back on Vingegaard, to leave the gap in the overall standings at nine seconds.

But given UAE had ridden on the front for the whole day, and worked so hard on the climb, it seemed a small reward. Ad Friday's stage was all about the final climb, with the day's break taking wildly different approaches as the race headed uphill.

Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) was first to strike out before being quickly swallowed up by James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Maxim van Gils (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan). Tour de France'Strange to see' — Pogacar confused by Jumbo-Visma tactics at Tour3 HOURS AGO But it was Kwiatkowski who was the first to look like they had timed their effort sensibly as he sailed past that trio with 11km remaining.

Behind, UAE were turning themselves inside out for Pogacar, but it was not enough to shake off a group of GC favourites – nor close significantly on Kwiatkowski, who held on for a comfortable win. Pogacar made a late, late bid for yellow but even though his acceleration was extraordinary, it was such a short effort that he only managed to put a handful of seconds into Vingegaard, who will likely consider it a job well done.

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