Tour de France 2022 Stage 13 LIVE - Will the day deliver fireworks at the front? A battle for the break? Or will the Tour finally serve up something for the sprinters?

The trio entered the finishing straight cagily. Houle led out slowly, sitting on the front, watching behind. Pederson jumped first, with 400m to go, and Wright tried to respond but couldn't close the gap. The faster man won, which is how it should be, but I can't help be disappointed for the lad from Herne Hill. He's getting closer, though.

Or can they outfox him?

They're still working well together. No turns skipped. They've got the legs. This isn't coming back.

Serious damage done by that attack, the trio taking ten seconds in a swoop towards the top of this uncategorised climb. I thought Fred Wright and Houle had taken it easy in the last half hour or so. This is the moment they were preparing for.

Bauer and Grondahl Jansen look around to see if anyone else wants to help them, find none forthcoming, and BikeExchange throw in the towel.

That's the signal to the breakaway, who have clearly heard over their radios, and Mads Pederson is the first to launch. The best form of defence is attack, eh? Fred Wright and Hugo Houle are on his wheel, but Ganna, Kung and Jorgensen can't follow.

Riders take bottles and musettes from the side of the road and cars.

Robbie McEwan thinks the gap is just the right size for the breakaway as, at 2 minutes, it's too small to guarantee it will go to the line, so there's no danger of them starting to attack each other just yet.

A similar slip from Jack Bauer (not that one) just shows how hard they're pushing it. At this point they're not bringing the gap down, either. With Ganna up the road Ineos, hovering behind, certainly aren't going to help them.

The games are beginning in the breakaway. None of them want to take Pedersen to the line.

As the saying goes, if he didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.

"This is turning out to be a real killer of a day," says Sean Kelly. You're telling me, your majesty. I'm going to wear out the windsock icon, at this rate. He probably means for the riders, but it's not been a picnic for your correspondent either.

There are splits all over the place, and while the gap has been brought down by about 30 seconds, it's only the Australian team prepared to put the work in.

On a fast left-hander Amund Grøndahl Jansen leans over too far and almost loses his rear wheel, but just about saves it. Squeaky bum time.

For Michael Matthews, presumably, rather than Dylan Groenewegen, but it's surely too little, too late? Had they been there earlier, maybe, they'd have had a chance, but there's no way they're going to manage it if no-one else is going to help them.

Silvan Dillier (Alpecin Deceuninck) has done all he can to try and save the sprint for Jasper Philipsen but it's to no avail. One team can only do so much. Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo Visma and UAE Team Emirates roll to the front in one wide line, a sign of an accord, and the pace is knocked off almost completely. Quinn Simmons, who has been working for Mads Pedersen, is also spent, and he slips off the back of the break.

Expect this gap, currently approaching 3'00, to grow to nearer five by the finish.

The final categorised climb, anyway. The Côte de Saint-Romain-en-Gal is not steep, at 4.7%, but it goes on for more than 7km, so it presents both challenges and opportunities. The latter more so for the breakaway, you'd think.

As the TV cuts to a bowed Caleb Ewan slowing to a crawl, the likelihood of this stage finishing in a sprint is now massively reduced. Will Ewan continue? Can he even make it to the finish?

The last half hour has been the second fastest of the stage, averaging 55.9kph.

Hardly surprising, considering the strength of the riders he's with. The breakaway wants this and they still believe they can take it.

Another exposed section of road causes the bunch to string out and then break apart once more.

Two minutes behind Caleb Ewan is being paced by the Alpecin Deceuinck car before being ticked off by the commissaire. He's managed to get back into the convoy and the shelter of the cars.

71KM TO GO - CALEB EWAN CRASHES!

It looked like he hit the back wheel of his own Lotto-Soudal team-mate, who seemed to miss a left-hand bend and was going straight on. He stood up clutching his knee, but the Australian is riding on, for now.

Apart from the effect on the individual, if he can't continue, or continue with a view to contesting the sprint, this is going to massively reduce the amount of energy in the chase. Advantage breakaway?

Lotto and Alpecin are fully committed to the chase and on these exposed roads, lined by flags showing the wind blowing across the course, it's causing serious trouble. Some riders, including Wout van Aert, seem to have been caught out as they passed through the feedzone. The peloton is now in three pieces. The arrival of an uncategorised climb should help it come back together.

Meanwhile, the breakaway has taken advantage, and the gap draws out to almost two minutes.

Bringing him briefly within 220 (or thereabouts) of Wout van Aert.

That is until Van Aert makes his way to the front of the peloton, to claim 8 points for 8th place. He now has more than double the total of Tadej Pogacar (who?) in 2nd place.

He seems to be pacing back behind one of the ambulance which, unless he's had a mechanical or an accident, is not appropriate. Team-mate Matteo Cattaneo drops back to help him, and he's soon back within the team cars.

With the wind causing trouble, as we approach the intermediate sprint, the gap is down to 1'23.

With Alpecin -Deceuninck and Lotto Soudal still doing the heavy lifting, Ineos-Grenadiers and Jumbo Visma seem a bit worried about the wind, bring their riders towards the front. They then decide to go the very wrong way round the roundabout, and find themselves falling back again, losing about 30 places a-piece. Read the roadbook, fellas

No contest, as Mads Pederson leads them over. Five points for him which... won't make much difference to anything.

What might is that the gap has grown to 2'33. What matters more than anything, however, is how many matches the sprint teams are having to burn to hold it here, and whether they have enough left to bring the escapees make when the time comes.