Stage 13

The road

At the start

Thirty-one seconds, and Revel

Mende cost Andy Schleck ten seconds and a good deal more than that in confidence: Contador is 31 seconds away now. Tyler Farrar abandoned yesterday. Today is 195 kilometres to Revel over five categorised climbs, none of them hard and the last of them — the Côte de Saint-Ferréol — sudden, steep, and only a few kilometres from the line. Two weeks in, the sprinters' teams find out what they have left.

How it was won

1. 1181 km to go

   Three too good to let go

   Flecha, Chavanel and Fedrigo go clear inside twenty kilometres, and HTC-Columbia are massed on the front before the break has even settled. Nobody is giving this one an inch.

2. 235 km to go

   Inside a minute

   Entering the final thirty-five kilometres the gap is under a minute and the day looks like ending in a sprint Cavendish should not really win — the finish has a climb in it.

3. 312 km to go

   Vinokourov's trademark

   Ballan, Roche and Cunego all try the Côte de Saint-Ferréol and all get pulled back. Then Vinokourov goes at the summit, and this is the move he has made his name on. Voeckler chases, hangs at eight seconds, then cracks, and the gap becomes thirty.

4. 4At the line

   Revenge in Revel

   Vinokourov wins by thirteen seconds, his first Tour stage since 2007. Cavendish takes the bunch sprint for second ahead of Petacchi, and the green jersey goes back to the Italian by two points.

The result