The Tour de France received a much-needed jolt in the closing meters of Stage 12 when Mikel Landa abandoned his captain, Chris Froome crumbled, and Fabio Aru took the yellow jersey from the three-time Tour winner.
Tour de France 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and route for Stage 13
The Tour de France’s Bastille Day stage will be short and probably meaningless but action-packed from start to finish.
The excitement of Thursday will continue on Stage 13 — a compact 101-kilometer stage with three Category 1 climbs that should be, from wall to wall, filled with pure racing goodness. Happy Bastille Day!
The stage will begin at 8:45 a.m. ET in Saint-Girons and finish in Foix. For once, the television broadcast will start at the same time as the streaming options. NBCSN’s coverage will begin at 8:30 a.m. Online, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app will carry the stage. If you don’t have a cable subscription, however, you’ll need NBC Sports Gold, a subscription service that also provides live tracking and commentary.
Ostensibly, a long, 26-kilometer descent to the finish line should tamp down the action. The descent isn’t steep enough to encourage a breakaway rider to try to open a time gap, and in fact any chasers may have the upper hand.
However, after Thursday’s stage tightened up the general classification, any small amount of time gained will be hugely important. Aru leads Froome by just six seconds and leads Stage 13 winner Romain Bardet by 25. Even if none of those three contends for the stage win, they can still take a precious second or two from each other if they are crafty — especially, perhaps, Bardet, who showed on the way down from the peak of Mont du Chat last Friday that he is in his own class as a descender.
The breakaway will no doubt get out early, chomping at the bit knowing that the general classification riders will be wary of overexerting themselves on a fast stage on which there can be little reward. With that in mind, it’s probably no accident that Stage 13 is taking place on Bastille Day. A Frenchman may be a safe bet to win a fourth stage in this year’s Tour.
Stage route
Stage profile
Images courtesy of the Tour’s official site.
Coverage for Stage 13 of the Tour de France on Friday
Start time: 8:45 a.m. ET (approx.)
Route: 101 kilometers from Saint-Girons to Foix
TV: NBCSN, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Streaming: NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app beginning at 8:30 a.m. NBC Sports Gold beginning at 8:30 a.m. (separate subscription required).
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