Stage 13

The road

At the start

Uphill again, to Castelldefels

Nothing has changed: Nibali by thirty-one seconds from Roche, forty-six from Valverde and Horner. Today is a hundred and seventy kilometres along the Catalan coast with the Alto del Rat Penat fifty out and another long uphill drag to the line — a stage for a breakaway, if the peloton ever lets one form.

How it was won

1. 150 km to go

   Scarponi tears the break apart

   It took sixty kilometres for the day's move to stick and now Michele Scarponi is dismantling it, setting a vicious pace up the Alto del Rat Penat and leading over the top. Then, with fifty kilometres left, he sits up — his work done, nine riders left in front.

2. 28 km to go

   Intxausti on the floor

   The nine have more than two minutes with ten kilometres to go and the stage is theirs. Then Beñat Intxausti loses it on a corner eight from the line and takes his chance of a second Grand Tour stage this year with him.

3. 32 km to go

   Coppel will not wait for a sprint

   With 2.2 kilometres left the Cofidis rider attacks the tired remains of the break. Barguil shows himself for the first time, jumping across with Zandio and Nocentini.

4. 4At the line

   Barguil, twenty-one years old

   The group comes back together one last time before the long uphill drag to Castelldefels, and in the half-second of hesitation that follows, Warren Barguil goes. Nocentini and Mollema surge late and he holds them — the biggest win of a very short career.

The result