Tour de France: Alexander Vinokourov wins stage 13

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan has won stage 13 of the 2007 Tour de France. Vinokourov finished the 54 km individual time trial, centered around Albi, in a time of 1h 12' 06".

Michael Rasmussen of Denmark held on to his overall lead, finishing 11th in the stage. Alejandro Valverde and Iban Mayo both lost ground in the overall. Cadel Evans gained ground on Rasmussen and is now just one minute behind.

This stage provided the first shake-up in the standings in days. Valverde and Mayo, who were previously second and third, have dropped out of the top ten. Pre-Tour favorite, Vinokourov, was able to use his stage victory to return to the top ten for the first time since stage 2.

Rasmussen did better than some expected. Afterwards he said: "I thought I had a fair chance, but from thinking to doing that can be a long way. I was a bit in trouble in the first 15 km, but in the last 30 km I did very well."

Just yesterday, Rasmussen was suspended by the Danish Cycling Federation because of a warning from anti-doping authorities within the Union Cycliste Internationale. There has not been a positive test, but the warning was issued for not keeping UCI informed of his whereabouts.

"I do admit I committed an administrative error," said Rasmussen. "I have already received a warning from the UCI but I am very calm and very relaxed." He continued, "I know a lot of riders who have received warnings for not giving updated information to the UCI. I'm just one out of many and it's just that I happen to have the yellow jersey."

Tomorrow's stage will take the race into the Pyrenees. This stage starts with a category 2 climb out of Mazamet and then follows a relatively calm route via Carcassonne, Limoux and Quillan before taking on the Port de Pailhères (17 km at 7.2%) and a very difficult finish at Plateau-de-Beille (16 km at 7.9%).

Stage 13 results

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Alexander Vinokourov	Astana Team	1h 06'34"
2	Cadel Evans	Predictor-Lotto	+1'14"
3	Andreas Klöden	Astana Team	+1'39"
4	Andrey Kashechkin	Astana Team	+1'44"
5	Bradley Wiggins	Cofidis	+2'14"
6	Yaroslav Popovych	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+2'16"
7	Alberto Contador	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+2'18"
8	Sylvain Chavanel	Cofidis	+2'38"
9	Levi Leipheimer	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+2'39"
10	Mikel Astarloza	Euskaltel-Euskadi	+2'42"

General classification after stage 13

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Michael Rasmussen	Rabobank	58h 46' 39"
2	Cadel Evans	Predictor-Lotto	+1' 00"
3	Alberto Contador	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+2' 31"
4	Andreas Klöden	Astana Team	+2' 34"
5	Levi Leipheimer	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	+3' 37"
6	Andrey Kashechkin	Astana Team	+4' 23"
7	Carlos Sastre	Team CSC	+4' 45"
8	Mikel Astarloza	Euskaltel-Euskadi	+5' 07"
9	Alexander Vinokourov	Astana Team	+5' 10"
10	Kim Kirchen	T-Mobile Team	+5' 29"

Sources

Charlie Henderson. "Vinokourov takes time-trial stage" — BBC Sport, July 21, 2007
"Vinokourov dominates time-trial" — BBC Sport, July 21, 2007
"stage 13 - Albi - Albi 54 km" — Tour de France, July 21, 2007
"Rasmussen calm over drug-test row" — BBC Sport, July 20, 2007

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