Wednesday's Tour de France stage in Central Massif will be the one to forget at Cofidis. While Guillaume Martin fought for a stage success to a little effect in the breakaway, his teammates Ion Izagirre and Alexis Renard had to abandon the Grand Boucle due to illness at the early parts of the stage....

Primoz Roglic has had a roller-coaster of a Tour de France but at the start of stage 12 he starts off in fourth place, 2.15 minutes away from the yellow jersey of Tadej Pogacar but only a minute away from his main rival in the podium fight Remco Evenepoel. Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe confirmed that...

Wout van Aert has had two crashes now at this Tour de France. None of them were overly serious or led to fractures but the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider is definitely having obstacles to his goal of improving his form. He has had a good night and isn't thinking of abandoning the Grand Boucle, but...

'11' probably won't become Tadej Pogacar's favourite number. For the second time in last three years, it is on the eleventh day of the Tour de France that he is dealt a heavy blow by Jonas Vingegaard. As it is now became evident the two are not as worlds apart as some may have thought, we can only l...

UAE Team Emirates built up the plan to attack yesterday's stage into Le Lioran and fully committed to it. Pavel Sivakov was an instrumental part of this plan and did a lot of important work, but was not shocked to see Jonas Vingegaard being able to match Tadej Pogacar and points out that Team Visma...

Johan Bruyneel, on Lance Armstrong's The Move show, gave his thoughts on stage 11 of the Tour de France and was harsh on Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates for trying a tactic he believes was stupid against an obviously in-form Jonas Vingegaard.The former cyclist and current analyst began by expla...

Alexey Lutsenko lost control of his bike in the final parts of the stage 12 when he missed a small curb in the middle of the road. The consequences are several wounded riders, but more importantly a podium favourite losing time in the crash.Primoz Roglic, who was involved in the crash, jumped back o...

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale are having a great 2024 regardless of how Tour de France plays out. However a stage victory would still be more than welcome as the team has been playing a minor role at the Grande Boucle so far.Team manager Vincent Lavenusummed up the eleventh stage to Le Lioran where hi...

Pau again and a sprint stage but with some hills in the finish.Gros Lot: some attacks at the start and four strong riders got away. But only four and they were not allowed space. Alpecins Silvan Dillier seemed to be towing for hours, Movistar helped too but it meant two of Dilliers team mates missed the time cut.On the approach to the finish Alexey Lutsenko tangled with a central divider and fell, prompting a big crash that included Mathieu van der Poel who was not able to be on lead out duty. Primo Rogli fared badly, he seemed to slam to the ground. He soon back chasing but somehow without urgency, as if Rogli couldnt ride hard and he lost over two minutes.In the sprint Dan McLay dropped off Arnaud Dmare for a long sprint and it looked like his good old days were back with a trademark long sprint but he faded right at the end, and got relegated for drifting right. This move wasnt diabolical but ended Wout van Aerts chances of revival as once again he was up against the barriers. Mark Cavendish was also relegated but its doubtful he lost sleep. Both moves were questionable but theres no doctrinal understanding here, the verdict is published without reasoning.Biniam Girmay didnt get a leadout but he was ferried into position Mike Teunissen as if the pair were late arrivals at a theatre, hurriedly squeezing past seated patrons to reach their reserved seats before the show started. Girmay timed it right again and took a third win.Girmay leads the points competition by over 100 points and, for illustration, Philipsen would need to win today and once again without Girmay scoring at all in the finish just to close the gap.The Route: 165km and 2000m of vertical gain. The final picks up the same roads as used in 2012 for the stage to Pau won by Pierrick Fedrigo, that year the climb near Monassut-Audiracq was categorised, 1.5km at 5.5%. Its these hills that could suit a breakaway if enough riders collaborate and try to spice up the finish.The Finish: flat boulevards in Pau.The Contenders: sprint or breakaway? The same question as opportunities for both are fading. We did see stronger riders and more teams trying to go clear yesterday but the sprinters won again.The hillier approach can tire some riders so Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarch-Wanty) seem best suited.Wheel-of-fortune picks for the breakaway win are Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Oier Lazkano (Movistar) and Stefan Kng (Groupama-FDJ)Philipsen, WvA, GirmayCavendishWeather: 21C and sunshine. A westerly wind will blow at about 20km/h and crucially it could gust more meaning the potential for crosswinds but not the certainty.TV: KM0 is at 1.50pm CEST and the finish is forecast for 5.30pm CEST. Tune in for the final hour to see the hills and if the wind has got up.Postcard from PauPau again. With 76 visits its the third most regular haunt of the Tour de France after Paris (145) and Bordeaux (82). Paris is obvious as the finish and it has hosted a stage start 35 times too. Bordeaux makes sense as a big city that is an obvious stopping point for all the years when the race lapped around the outside of France but its arguably a 20th century venue as its only hosted two stage starts and one finish this century. On current trends Pau will soon become the second most visited stop.Why Pau? Its almost at the foot of the Pyrenees. Almost is worth stating in case anyone visits with expectations of the Tourmalet being a short spin away. But it is a large city, sits on the A64 autoroute and has plenty of hotels. This last factor is important as the Tour requires at least 4,500 hotel beds a night, one third of this is booked by ASO for the teams and all the organisation from the UCI commissaires to the publicity caravan staff; the rest are media and others working on the race who make their own bookings.For years the Tour used makeshift dormitories, the likes of Eddy Merckx sometimes had to spend the night on a camp bed in a school gymnasium. Even parsimonious Raymond Poulidor said sometimes he felt like paying for a hotel after a hard days racing but would be disqualified. Its still a rule today that teams must use the accommodation supplied by the race.Every year when the route is unveiled the sight of Pau might be met with mentions of encore and again but it a nice place to send a postcard. A student town with its castle, the view of the Pyrenees, a paved square. Pau it has its charms and beats Tarbes, the other large place to the east. But if you are not tasked with block-booking thousands of rooms and plan to ride in the Pyrenees take your pick from many of the smaller towns and villages closer to the mountains.The post Tour de France Stage 13 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Mark Cavendish is the fresh owner of the title of a rider with most Tour de France stage wins to his name. In addition, the 39-year-old was recently awarded the British knight title for example representing of the kingdom. And it is at his home Tour of Britain where not only fans would like to see t...