2015 Tour de France results and standings, Stage 13: Greg Van Avermaet outduels Peter Sagan for win

Greg Van Avermaet took Stage 13 of the 2015 Tour de France with a beautiful surge up an incline to the finish in Rodez. He just edged out Peter Sagan, who will be disappointed he didn’t get the stage win but will be plenty happy with the points he earned in the green jersey competition. He now holds a sizable lead over Andre Greipel, who held the jersey on the course after winning the intermediate sprint.

Van Avermaet spoiled a valiant breakaway bid. Seven riders led most of the race. That group was widdled down to three over the final kilometers -- Cyril Gautier, Wilco Kelderman and Thomas De Gendt. If the trio had a flat lead-in to the finish, they may have been able to complete the feat, but as the gradient increased with one kilometer to go they fell back quickly into the maw of the peloton.

Van Avermaet broke from the pack with roughly 300 meters to go, and only Sagan was willing or capable of responding. Though Sagan held the BMC rider’s wheel, he didn’t quite have enough energy to swing ahead, leaving him still without a Tour stage win since 2013.

The effect on the general classification will be slight. Chris Froome and company were happy to ride the peloton’s pace after three hard days in the Pyrenees. The sprinters shined. Greipel took the intermediate sprint ahead of John Degenkolb (second), Mark Cavendish (third) and Sagan (fourth) to give him a one-point virtual lead on the points classification.

Sagan had to hold back on the sprint because he was sandwiched between Greipel and Cavendish and came dangerously close to bumping into his rivals. Though he seemed perturbed at the time, he more than made up for the wobble at the end of the stage, now with a 24-point lead in the points competition.

The win gives Van Avermaet, a 30-year-old classics specialist and one of Tejay Van Garderen’s top lieutenants, his first career Tour de France stage win. The win was BMC’s third of the Tour, and first outside of a time trial format. Van Garderen (+2:52) still sits second-place in the yellow jersey standings, behind Froome.