Tour de France stage 13 predictions and cycling betting tips: Pogacar set to make some ground on fierce rival Vingegaard

Where to watch Tour de France stage 13

ITV4 & Eurosport 1, 12.55pm Friday

Best bet

Tadej Pogacar to win stage 13
1pt 5-4 bet365

Tour de France stage 13 predictions

One of the great Tour de France duels reaches its key battleground on Friday with the first of five days of Alpine combat that should reveal which of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar will top the Paris podium clad in yellow.

Vingegaard, the defending champion, holds a lead of 17 seconds over the 2020 and 2021 winner and bookmakers can barely split the pair.

For the majority of Friday's 138km stage the riders will be enjoying fairly flat terrain but the road kicks up with 18km to go and rises steeply all the way to the finish in Grand Colombier, where Pogacar won the last time the Tour tackled the mountain three years ago.

If the big two are slugging it out for the stage victory up the decisive ascent Pogacar may have the edge, but punters must also factor in the possibility of them finishing behind a group of riders who have been allowed to go clear.

There is a chance that will happen after the riders experienced such a bruising day on Thursday, when the fight to make the breakaway raged for nearly 90km, causing huge stress for the entire field.

That will have left its mark and there is every chance some competent climbers were able to take it relatively easily in the closing stages with a view to having a pop on Friday.

But it is worth taking a chance that the big guns and their teams will not give any escapees too much leeway and that Pogacar will take the win and chip away at his rival’s overall advantage.

Cofidis enjoyed their second stage success of the race yesterday having gone 15 years without one as Basque veteran Ion Izagirre jumped clear towards the last hilltop and stayed away for his first stage win since 2016.

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