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

The breakaway has started the warm-up climb which, oddly, hasn't been given a category, and instead lumbered with an intermediate sprint - not at its summit but with still another 10km (albeit with a more forgiving gradient) to go. The hap is 2'10" for the 20 leaders.

A great stat here: every rider who has gone over the top of the Grand Colombier in first place during a Tour stage has gone on to be crowned the king of the mountains in Paris. Will that stat continue in 2023?

With UAE now riding with just two riders on the front of the peloton, the advantage of the 20 leaders has grown to 2'20". We have the intermediate sprint coming up - atop an uncategorised climb - and then the descent and valley road to the foot of the 17.4km final ascent.

Harold Tejada (Qazaqstana) is the only of these 20 escapees whose deficit in the general classification can be measured in minutes, not hours. So, it's fair to say that no one is a threat to Vingegaard's jellow kersey. The Colombian is 54'55" down.

In the event of this break having 10 minutes to play with, I'd suggest that the likes of Latour, Wright, Mohoric, Shaw or Kwiatkowski were favourites for the win. But with under two minutes to play with, none of them stand a chance of winning today's stage.

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) drops back to change his bike in what looks like it was a planned decision. The Basque climber won a few days ago in Issoire and is currently fifth on GC at 4'34". The gap for the 20 leaders has crept up a little to 1'42".

Moving on from Jumbo yesterday, McEwen is now on the comms expressing his puzzlement with UAE's tactics. He thinks they shouldn't be committing men to the chase like this and that it may play into Jumbo-Visma's hands. Jens Voigt, who is following the race on the motorbike, disagrees:

"I think they have a plan and they will execute that plan to perfection today. If you ask me directly, I would say that, yes, there will be a change in the yellow jersey today. I'm just saying what I see and what I as an expert expects. I don't have a preference but I believe that is what we will see."

He described Stage 12 as “utterly chaotic,” while Jens Voigt said it was “out of control." For his part, Rob Hatch was "breathless since the start" and said that Stage 12 “packed more punch” than any other he could remember in recent memory.

The tone was set from the outset with Denmark’s Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) zipping clear from the gun – the first of an entire Napoleonic War’s worth of attacks that peppered the first half of the 168km stage through the Rhone wine region in central France.

But Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma team was particularly active – with Van Aert, Kelderman and Benoot all enjoying early sustained forays off the front, stringing out the fractured peloton behind on countless occasions, but not enough for the elastic to snap.

“I can’t understand the method to their madness,” McEwen said of Jumbo-Visma’s tactics, which he described as “absolutely bonkers,” adding: “We love it, but it makes zero sense.” Here's what the Aussie commentator thought this morning ahead of Stage 13.

After their "utterly bonkers" day yesterday (Robbie McEwen's words) the Jumbo-Visma team of the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard are happy to let UAE and Bora-hansgrohe take the reins here as the race rampages towards the summit showdown on the Grand Colombier at an average speed of 52kmph since the start. The gap is still 1'25" and so you don't fancy the chances of any of the escapees today at this rate.

If today we're seeing UAE go for it, yesterday was a different kettle of fish with Jumbo-Visma sending multiple riders off the front in the series of attacks that peppered the first half of the stage. Wout van Aert, Wilco Kelderman and Tiesj Benoot had all enjoyed forays off the front before Benoot found himself into the breakaway which eventually formed. This is what white jersey Tadej Pogacar made of it...

Mikkel Bjerg continues to bury himself on the front of the UAE train that has strung out this peloton to keep the gap of the 20 riders ahead to just 1'25".

It's the UAE team of Tadej Pogacar who have committed three riders to keep the progress of this breakaway in check - and that's very interesting. It seems to corroborate what Jonas Vingegaard said at the beginning about Jumbo's rivals trying to pile the pressure on the Grand Colombier.

The gap grows to 1'10" with the lone chaser Bryan Coquard, who appeared to catch and pass Geniets, now easing up after realising the error of his ways.

The 20 leaders: Michael Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Alberto Bettiol and James Shaw (both EF Education-EasyPost), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Matej Mohoric and Fred Wright (both Bahrain Victorious), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Adrien Petit, Mike Teunissen and Georg Zimmermann (all Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Hugo Houle (Israel-PremierTech), Luca Mozzato (Arkea-Samsic), Pascal Eenkhoorn and Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), Cees Bol and Harold Tejada (both Astana Qazaqstan), Anthon Charmig (Uno-X) and Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies).

It looks like the breakaway had been given leave, but Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) darted clear in pursuit - and his audacity was crumbs enough for others to try and follow suit... Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) is one of those trying to get involved - and his move, after initially stretching things out, seems to be the one that closes everything off. Coquard is allowed to go and the peloton is now flat on the front with the gap growing.

Four more, then another six join the break - and we have another huge group behind bridging over - so we could be about to see a super group or around 20 riders form. If they can combine together then this should be the day's break because it looks like the peloton is now easing up behind.

That six-man move was snuffed out and we now have another four riders out in Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Mike Teunissen (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny). Madouas tried to bridge over with some others but couldn't close the gap, which is around 10 seconds.

That move by Cavagna sparked a chase from five behind and they have managed to join the Frenchman out ahead with a small gap. They are Ineos Grenadiers duo Jonathan Castroviejo and Omar Fraile, Magnus Cort (EF), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and British national champion Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious). It's a strong group but their advantage is very slender...

Mads Pedersen is driving the tempo of the pack with Danish team-mate Mattias Skjelmose on his wheel as they drag the front of the peloton back to the two leaders, Turgis and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X). Now it's Soudal-QuickStep who take it over, with Julian Alaphilippe launching team-mate Cavagna in a French one-two.

The Cavagna group grew in size with EF Education-EasyPost showing intent by getting both a climber (Esteban Chaves) and a rouleur (Alberto Bettiol) into the move. But it came to nothing and we now have another duo trying their luck in a TotalEnergies/Uno-X alliance. Anthony Turgis is the Frenchman in this move.

Not ideal for the French national champion on Bastille Day - after showing some early intend, he's now off the back getting a wheel change following a puncture. Madouas will now have to fight back on - before seeing if he can then fight to get into the break...