With a fierce and well-timed attack, the Basque cyclist broke away during the final short climb, a mere 30 kilometers away from the finish line. Izagirre’s dominance was evident as he never glanced back, clinching his second career Tour stage victory.
Previously victorious in the 20th stage of the 2016 Tour in Morzine, Izagirre joined the ranks of Spanish winners this year, following Pello Bilbao’s triumph on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Furthermore, he became the second member of the Cofidis team to claim a stage win, following Victor Lafay’s achievement in the second stage.
This victory for Spain marks the first Tour stage win since 2018, while Cofidis had been striving for a victory since 2008.
Denmark’s defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard, retained the prestigious yellow jersey as the overall leader. <\/p>\n
Vingegaard holds a 17-second advantage over Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar and a 2-minute and 40-second lead over Australian rider Jai Hindley.
Notably, France’s Thibaut Pinot, an active participant in today’s breakaway, improved his overall standing from 15th to 10th place, now trailing the leader by 6 minutes and 33 seconds.
A top climber, the Groupama-FDJ rider was however unable to follow Izagirre when the Spaniard attacked and dropped everyone in impressive fashion.<\/p>\n
“He’s one of the engines of the team. He passes on his ambition to his team mates,” Cofidis team manager Cedric Vasseur, who recruited Izagirre last year, said.
“Today we had decided to put several riders in the breakaway and the presence of (Frenchman) Guillaume Martin in it helped us. It took us years to win a stage on the Tour (after 2018) and this year we already have two, it’s amazing.
“What a day, what a Tour.”
After countless foiled attempts, a 15-man breakaway took shape midway through the stage, which got to an explosive start with the chasing pack reduced to some 40 riders.<\/p>\n
All the top guns were in there but Vingegaard’s Jumbo Visma and Pogacar’s UAE Emirates teams let the advantage grow to 3:30 until AG2R-Citroen started pulling in front in a dodgy strategic move as they had virtually no chance of bridging the gap.
Mathieu van der Poel jumped away from the leading group, followed by Andrey Amador but the Dutch rider went solo before the Col de la Croix Montmain (5.5km at 6.1%).
He had 20 seconds at the top but Pinot and Matteo Jorgenson came back in the Col de la Croix Rosier, only for the trio to be reined in by a group of six.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIzagirre attacked 2.4km from the top and never looked back, leaving France’s Mathieu Burgaudeau and Jorgensen over a minute behind to finish second and third respectively.
Friday’s 13th stage should see the top guns resume their battle as it will take the peloton up to the Col du Grand Colombier at the end of the lung-busting 17.4-km ascent at 7.1%.
(With inputs from Reuters)<\/span><\/div>\n