2011 Tour de France, Stage 13

World champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) pulled himself over the Col d'Aubisque and chased down Jérémy Roy (FDJ) for 30 km to take the victory in Lourdes on the Pau- Lourdes 156km stage. "Winning alone on a hard day like this when we went over the Col d'Aubisque and doing it wearing the rainbow jersey is, I think, incredible. "It's the craziest thing I've ever done. I was happy to be in the break. I was obviously strong. I went on the attack on the Aubisque so that I could ride at my own pace. My goal was to come back on the descent, which I finally managed to do. It's incredible how quickly things have turned for me. Yesterday and the few days before I was feeling tired, but I did the right thing yesterday by taking it easy and losing quite a lot of time. I think that saved my legs and that's why I won today."

The top GC riders rode to save energy for the severity of Saturday's Saint-Gaudens - Plateau de Beille 168k stage. Every rider who has previously won at Plateau de Beille has gone on to the win the Tour that same year: Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007). Basso expects a "hellish day".


Top 10 GC:
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 55:49:57
2 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:01:49
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:02:06
4 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:02:17
5 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:03:16
6 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:03:22
7 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:04:00
8 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:04:11
9 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:04:35
10 Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo

Photo: Bettini

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