The Tour de France: Stages Twelve and Thirteen

Stages twelve and thirteen were both designed with the sprinters in mind, but both threw up some surprises. In stage twelve it did come down to a bunch sprint, but there was a major crash within the last three kilometres which put paid to Greipel's chances of contesting the sprint and picking up points in the green jersey competition. Others were also caught out, including Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen, who rode to the finish, but would later be declared out of the race, having broken his shoulder. The real surprise came at the finish line when Marcel Kittel powered past Cavendish, taking the victory and, no doubt, a huge amount of confidence from being able to beat 'the fastest sprinter in the world.'

Stage thirteen should have been just more of the same, really, but instead everything blew apart. It was clear that Omega Pharma Quickstep were determined to take charge of the race, keeping the pace so high that riders were struggling at the back, including Marcel Kittlel. Hearing news of this simply motivated the team to continue onwards and soon more gaps appeared, something which the side winds also contributed to. Unfortunately, for Movistar, Valverde had a mechanical issue at the wrong moment, so that even with most of his team-mates around him, it was going to be a struggle for him to get back on. Indeed, it turned out that he and his team-mates would be swept up by Kittel's group and none of them would catch up with the peloton.

Consequently, Valverde lost his second place position on the GC, and has now fallen out of the top 10, so that it looks as though Movistar have only Quintana as their main man. This turned out to be not the only change to the GC, as Saxo-Tinkoff decided to put in a surprise attack, with a number of other GC contenders including Laurens Ten Dam and Bauke Mollema making it into the group. Of those looking to win the green jersey, Cavendish and Sagan made it across, with Greipel losing out once more. Sky and other GC teams were fighting to bring the breakaway group back, but all their efforts were to be in vain, as the group ended up finishing 1:09 down on the winner. Despite the best efforts of Sagan, Cavendish was finally able to win his second stage of this year's tour.

In terms of the GC, it must be worrying times for Sky, seeing how strong the other teams are and not being able to respond, especially since they are already two men down. The question is whether there will be any more unexpected fireworks in the next stage, although it is only a medium mountains stage, or whether those aiming for the GC will wait for the high mountains of Mont Ventoux to attack.