Tour de France stage 13: Vino stays away in Revel

Alexandre Vinokourov of Astana, banned from the Tour de France for the past two years after testing positive for an illegal blood transfusion in 2007’s race, claimed his first stage win in this year's race in Revel this afternoon, attacking inside the closing kilometres and riding away to claim what in the end was a comfortable victory.

The Kazakh, third in Mendes yesterday after being involved in a day-long breakaway, made his decisive move some 8km from the finish in response to an attack shortly beforehand from BMC Racing’s Alessandro Ballan, world road race champion in 2008.

The Italian had got off the front of the peloton as the race headed up the day’s final climb, the Category 3 Cote de Saint-Ferréol, but Vinokourov quickly caught and passed him, succeeding where other riders, including Nicolas Roche of AG2R-La Mondiale, had tried and failed.

With victory all but assured by the time he passed under the flamme rouge, Vinokourov, winner of two stages in the 2007 Tour before his failed test came to light, crossed the line 13 seconds ahead of a chasing bunch led home by HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish, who took the sprint from Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Farnese Vini.

The latter is now back in the lead of the points classification, taking the green jersey by two points from Thor Hushovd of Cervélo TestTeam, once again off the pace in the sprint as he took eighth place on the stage. Cavendish, who now has just two more chances of stage wins in Bordeaux next Friday and on the Champs Elysées two days later, lies third, a further 23 points back.

Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank retains the race leader's yellow jersey, 31 seconds ahead of Vinokourov's team mate and defending champion Alberto Contador, after both kept out of trouble and came home with the bunch following today's 196km stage, which got under way in Rodez.

The last time a stage finished in Revel, in 2005, Paolo Salvoldelli of Discovery Channel was the victor, beating CSC’s Kurt-Asle Arvesen within the final kilometre, the pair being the sole survivors of a day-long escape. The Italian had won that year’s Giro d’Italia, but was riding the Tour as a domestique for Lance Armstrong who was on his way to his winning seventh and last maillot jaune.

Today also saw a break that managed to stay away for most of the stage, but this time the escapees, Team Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha, Perrick Fedrigo of Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step were not allowed to establish too much of an advantage, with HTC-Columbia in particular working hard to set up a sprint finish for Cavendish, although the attacks from Ballan and then Vinokourov meant that was not to be.

The race now heads into the Pyrenees for four stages that will go a long way towards determining who will occupy the podium places in Paris. Two of those have summit finishes, the first being tomorrow’s stage to the ski resort of Ax 3 Domaines, which ends with a 10.5km climb at an average gradient of 8.2%.

That ascent is immediately preceded by the Hors-Categorie Port de Pailhères, a climb of more than 50km which starts off gently as the race hits the River Aude near Quillan but just gets steeper and steeper, with sections of more than 10% over the summit.

Although the Tour first went up the Pailhères only in 2003, the year of its centenary, it has already carved itself a place in Tour history following a dramatic race that day with Jan Ullrich going on the attack against Armstrong, who managed to dig in deep to recover and finish fourth on the stage, which was won by Carlos Sastre, to retain the yellow jersey.

Organisers will be hoping for a similarly thrilling stage tomorrow as the Tour begins to mark the 100th anniversary of its first visit to the Pyrenees.

Top 20 Tour de France 2010 Stage 13 result 

1  VINOKOUROV Alexandre     ASTANA               4h 26' 26"
2  CAVENDISH Mark           TEAM HTC-COLUMBIA     + 00' 13"
3  PETACCHI Alessandro      LAMPRE-FARNESE        + 00' 13"
4  HAGEN Edvald Boasso      SKY PRO CYCLING       + 00' 13"
5  ROJAS Jose Joaquin       CAISSE D’EPARGNE      + 00' 13"
6  DEAN Julian              GARMIN-TRANSITIONS    + 00' 13"
7  GESLIN Anthony           FDJ                   + 00' 13"
8  HUSHOVD Thor             CERVELO TEST TEAM     + 00' 13"
9  BOLE Grega               LAMPRE-FARNESE        + 00' 13"
10 MONDORY Lloyd            AG2R LA MONDIALE      + 00' 13"
11 CIOLEK Gerald            TEAM MILRAM           + 00' 13"
12 MAASKANT Martijn         GARMIN-TRANSITIONS    + 00' 13"
13 ROELANDTS Jürgen         OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO    + 00' 13"
14 SANCHEZ Samuel           EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI     + 00' 13"
15 MOREAU Christophe        CAISSE D’EPARGNE      + 00' 13"
16 GARATE Juan Manuel       RABOBANK              + 00' 13"
17 ELMIGER Martin           AG2R LA MONDIALE      + 00' 13"
18 MENCHOV Denis            RABOBANK              + 00' 13"
19 ARASHIRO Yukiya          BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM + 00' 13"
20 FREIRE Oscar             RABOBANK              + 00' 13

Overall standings after Stage 13 

1  SCHLECK Andy             TEAM SAXO BANK      63h 08' 40"
2  CONTADOR Alberto         ASTANA                + 00' 31"
3  SANCHEZ Samuel           EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI     + 02' 45"
4  MENCHOV Denis            RABOBANK              + 02' 58"
5  VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen    OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO    + 03' 31"
6  LEIPHEIMER Levi          TEAM RADIOSHACK       + 04' 06"
7  GESINK Robert            RABOBANK              + 04' 27"
8  RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin TEAM KATUSHA           + 04' 58"
9  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon        CAISSE D’EPARGNE      + 05' 02"
10 KREUZIGER Roman          LIQUIGAS-DOIMO        + 05' 16"
11 BASSO Ivan               LIQUIGAS-DOIMO        + 05' 30"
12 VINOKOUROV Alexandre     ASTANA                + 06' 12"
13 HESJEDAL Ryder           GARMIN-TRANSITIONS    + 06' 25"
14 ROCHE Nicolas            AG2R LA MONDIALE      + 06' 44
15 SASTRE Carlos            CERVELO TEST TEAM     + 07' 34"
16 WIGGINS Bradley          SKY PRO CYCLING       + 07' 39"
17 ROGERS Michael           TEAM HTC-COLUMBIA     + 07' 47"
18 EVANS Cadel              BMC RACING TEAM       + 08' 08"
19 LÖVKVIST Thomas          SKY PRO CYCLING   + 08' 24"
20 KLÖDEN Andréas           TEAM RADIOSHACK   + 09' 05"