Tour de France (st. 12)

Movistar Team overcomes crash into final 3k in Tours; Rojas 7th at bunch sprint -won by Kittel (ARG)- as Valverde stays in 2nd overall

Only two incidents disturbed Movistar Team’s calmness in one of the easiest stages to date in the 2013 Tour de France, the twelth in this year’s race over a flat, 218-kilometer route from Fougères to Tours. The telephone squad only had to work hard to get Nairo Quintana back into the bunch after a puncture with 35k to go, with Amador, Castroviejo and Plaza helping the Colombian fast to take him back to the group. A more serious accident happened as a pile-up at the front of the bunch with 2.5k to go split the field, with no Blue riders affected by the crash.

José Joaquín Rojas ended up in 7th place at the mass sprint as German Marcel Kittel (ARG) obtained his third stage win in this year’s race. The times were neutralised, keeping the overall classification intact as Alejandro Valverde (2nd), Nairo Quintana (8th) and Rui Costa (9rd) keep their places into the top ten with two days before the second block of mountains in the race. Stage 13 on Friday will cover 173km between Tours and Saint-Amand-Montrond, with a short, non-rated ascent just ten kilometers from the end.