Tour de France 2021 Route stage 13: Nîmes

Tour de France 2021 Route stage 13: Nîmes - Carcassonne

Friday 9 July - The riders travel from Nîmes to Carcassonne in the 13th stage of the Tour de France. At 220 kilometres, the race is tailor-made for a successful breakaway. At least, that's what history tells us.

Carcasonne has never seen a Tour de France peloton sprint for the stage victory. Small groups, yes – for the last time in 2018, when Magnus Cort was far too fast for Ion Izagirre and Bauke Mollema. Those three were the survivors of a lead group of 29 riders.

Probably, stage 13 will be responsible for breach of historical contract, as the route is virtually flat. KOM contenders have only one chance to add points to their tally. The Côte du Pic-Saint Loup – 5.5 kilometres at 3.6% – is crested after 51.5 kilometres before the rest of the day traverses flat to undulating roads.

In recent years, Carcassonne featured mostly as a starting place. We have to go back to 2006 to find the last finish before 2018. Yaroslav Popovych won that day from the breakaway.

In 2014 and 2018 the bunch started in Carcassonne for a mountainous race to Bagnères-de-Luchon, and in 2016 the peloton faced a windswept race to Montpellier with an exciting finale. Green jersey Peter Sagan took the stage honours and yellow jersey Chris Froome put time into his GC rivals.

The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

Another interesting read: results 13th stage 2021 Tour de France.