Favorites stage 13 Tour de France 2024 | From Pau to the Pyrenees will be brutally tough, but first...

The Tour de France reaches Pau on Friday, and any average cycling fan knows what that means: the Pyrenees are just around the corner. But before we start the grueling third weekend of the Tour, there is still a possible sprint opportunity waiting. In this article, IDLProCycling.com tells you everything you need to know.

Route stage 13 Tour de France 2024

The riders will start on Friday in Agen, located in the Lot-et-Garonne region. The stage begins with several sections that go up and down, but it will mainly be important not to let any strong riders break away. This is a task for the sprinter teams, who hope to seize one last chance before the Pyrenees.

After 91.5 kilometers, the intermediate sprint takes place in Nogaro, where Jasper Philipsen secured a stage win last year on the circuit. From there, the route heads southwest towards Pau. After 116 kilometers, the peloton reaches Madiran, a place that will certainly be discussed beforehand in the team buses. This is where a hilly zone of about forty kilometers begins.

Climbs like the Côte de Blachon (1.5 kilometers at 6.9%) and Côte de Simacourbe (1.8 kilometers at 6.4%) can cause splits, especially since there are more 'hidden' elevation gains in that phase of the race. The 165-kilometer stage includes a total of two thousand meters of elevation gain.

These are not in the final part, as the riders will descend slightly from Morlaas to Pau. There we get a final straight line of about five hundred meters, after two tricky turns in the final kilometer. Being at the front seems crucial. Arnaud Démare (2018) and Marcel Kittel (2017) can attest to this as previous Tour stage winners in Pau.

Climbs
127.0 km: CÔTE DE BLACHON (1.5 km at 6.9%)
136.3 km: CÔTE DE SIMACOURBE (1.8 km at 6.4%)

Times
Start: 1:50 PM
Finish: around 5:30 PM

Weather stage 13 Tour de France 2024

The weather is quite nice in the south of France. Temperatures will hover around 25 degrees Celsius on Friday, with the wind blowing quite briskly on the flank.

Favorites stage 13 Tour de France 2024

Okay, let's sketch the situation: we have the green jersey (Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty) who has already won three stages and can mainly secure his jersey by preventing other riders from scoring points, a top sprinter (Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck) whose team is quite depleted, considerable fatigue in the peloton, and many riders and teams looking to make up for their empty-handedness in this Tour de France.

Normally, a stage like this in week three of the Tour often ends up in a breakaway bonanza, which we also expect for this stage after the events of the past few days. If there is one man determined to make something of it, it's Wout van Aert of Visma | Lease a Bike. The Belgian finished a surprising second on Thursday and would love to win a stage before the Pyrenees. Teammate Christophe Laporte is also capable of doing so.

Van Aert already texted Magnus Cort of Uno-X on Tuesday to try something together, so he is also someone who could pull this off. Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) came close in the gravel stage won by Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), while guys like Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar) often get caught in the mountain stages and might seek their fortune in this stage. This also applies to teams like Groupama-FDJ, which can play cards with riders like Romain Grégoire.

Green jersey Girmay can send men like Laurenz Rex, Mike Teunissen, and Hugo Page forward, but he might also need to take action himself. For sprinters like Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech), Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R), Arnaud Démare (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Mark Cavendish (Astana), and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), this is also an opportunity.

Better climbing riders like Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny), Marijn van den Berg (EF), and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) can achieve it in multiple ways, both in a breakaway and in a sprint with a (reduced) peloton. And we haven't even mentioned classics riders like Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Alberto Bettiol (EF), and Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek). The same goes for Mathieu van der Poel, but he is currently feeling a bit under the weather.

Favorites stage 13 Tour de France 2024, according to IDLProCycling.com

Top favorite: Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny)
Outsiders: Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Jasper Philipsen Aalpecin-Deceuninck), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Magnus Cort (Uno-X) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
Long shots: Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Arnaud Démare (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Matthews and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla)