Tour de France 2023 Stage 13 recap: Michal Kwiatkowski holds on as Tadej Pogacar moves within nine seconds of yellow

Pello Bilbao drops two places below the Yates twins while the yo-yoing Thibaut Pinot drops out of the top 10 on Bastille Day with Sepp Kuss returning.

1. Jonas Vingegaard
2. Tadej Pogacar +9
3. Jai Hindley +2:51
4. Carlos Rodriguez +4:48
5. Adam Yates +5:03
6. Simon Yates +5:04
7. Pello Bilbao +5:25
8. Tom Pidcock +5:35
9. David Gaudu +6:52
10. Sepp Kuss +7:11

The last came alongside team-mate Richard Carapaz in 2020 to save Ineos' Tour after their leader Egan Bernal had dropped out after being dropped on... the Grand Colombier.

"Winning at the top of a mountain like Grand Colombier is amazing. I had memories of being here with Egan Bernal thinking about quitting the race [in 2020] and unfortunately he did later on, so that was bad memories for us. Then, with Richard [Carapaz] that was also a different feeling because that was full gas racing from start to the finish. In the end we could enjoy the last 15km together.

"But today the last effort was probably the hardest in my life. I managed it well but it was hard. Without the fans it wouldn’t have been possible – they were driving me to the finish, it was an amazing feeling."

"Yeah, obviously I had a nice advantage on the final climb. It was a crazy experience, to be honest. When I entered the breakaway, I thought this was just a free ticket to maybe the bottom of the climb or something like that. I never thought this group would fight for the stage victory because UAE were pulling pretty hard in the pack. I guess it’s not very easy to chase 19 guys rotating on the flat for more than 100km, so, yeah, crazy."

Just two of the breakaway hold on as Ineos Grenadiers make it two in a row on Bastille Day.

1. Michal Kwiatkowski
2. Maxim Van Gils +47
3. Tadej Pogacar +50
4. Jonas Vingegaard +54
5. Thomas Pidcock +1:03
6. Jai Hindley +1:05
7. James Shaw +1:05
8. Harold Tejada +1:05
9. Simon Yates +1:14
10. Adam Yates +1:18

Carlos Rodriguez and Sepp Kuss were next over the line at 1:20.

The Slovenian rounds Tejada and Shaw in the closing moments but can't quite catch Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) who holds on for second place, 47 seconds down on the winner. Pogacar takes four seconds off Vingegaard - plus four bonus seconds for third place - so he will now trail the Dane by just nine seconds in this tight GC battle.

The man in white dances on the pedals and then opens up a gap over his rival in yellow... He sweeps up the remnants of the break - and he'll get some bonus seconds here, plus a few seconds over the line...

The Pole is all smiles as he wins on the Grand Colombier on Bastille Day for Ineos Grenadiers.

Kwiatkowski passes the flamme rouge and he's about to hit that steep double-digit final ramp. He will win this because he has over a minute on the pursuers and over two minutes on the yellow jersey group. So, Ineos Grenadiers get their win on Bastille Day - just as they did last year on Alpe d'Huez with Pidcock.

Finally, we have the moment: Adam Yates kicks clear and is covered by Sepp Kuss. With their lieutenants ahead, Vingegaard and Pogacar ride back on. Only Simon Yates, Tom Pidcock, Jai Hindley and Carlos Rodriguez can follow. For now.

UAE have put in a decent shift but the pace can't be that intolerable because they're neither closing the gap on Kwiatkowski nor slimming down this yellow jersey group.

I may eat those words but it doesn't appear that there's any hunger behind for the stage win. Indeed, the gap grows back to 2'25" for the Pole over the pack, with the chase group now 1'05" down.

Lone leader Michal Kwiatkowski has almost a minute now on Shaw, Van Gils and Tejada, who have dropped Mohoric. The yellow jersey group is 2'15" down with Grossschartner giving way to Majka on the front.

Pogacar still has Grossschartner, Majka and Yates, while Vingegaard has Kuss. Will one of them make their move soon? Otherwise they may loose the opportunity of taking this stage. Simon Yates, David Gaudu, Jai Hindley, Carlos Rodriguez, Tom Pidcock, Pello Bilbao, Louis Meintjes and Felix Gall are all still here in this main group.

The French climbers are falling like flies as Grossschartner and Majka come to the front now for Pogacar. Adam Yates is near the back of this thinning out yellow jersey group. They're going hard but the gap isn't coming down: 3'10" for Kwiatkowski, who now has 55 seconds on the chasers.

Bittersweet few minutes for Ineos Grenadiers, who may have Michal Kwiatkowski on the front, but have just lost Ben Turner who has withdrawn.

The Pole has 38 seconds on a chasing quartet of Mohoric, Shaw, Tejada and Van Gils. Soler still drives the UAE train on the nose of the yellow jersey group, which is 3'10" down. Adam Yates has placed himself between team-mate Pogacar and Vingegaard, which is interesting - and could make the Dane reacting to any Pogi attack a little harder.