Stage Details

Stage 13 - Saturday, July 20: Lavelanet - Béziers

Distance:	171km
Start Location:	Esplanade de la Concorde, Lavelanet
Start Time:	Flying Start: 1:15 p.m., Les Chaubets exit.
Description:	Course: Although they have to overcome a very difficult, but short climb right from the start, the sprinters will be glad that they will have this one stage as an opportunity for a stage win before the race heads into the Alps. The early climb is the Col de Montségur, only 5km long, but on a narrow road with long stretches steeper than 10 percent. It will probably spark an early break, especially as the following 60km are also in the foothills of the Pyrénées, with two more climbs. But the remaining 103km are completely flat, so expect all the attacks to be reeled in before the finish at Béziers, where the sprinters can decide the stage on the Boulevard du Maréchal Leclerc. History: Only two Tour road stages have finished at Béziers, the last time being in 1958, when Italian Pierino Baffi outsprinted his French breakaway companion Jean Dacquay, 2:42 ahead of the pack. Favorites: With the list of sprinters thinned out by the mountains, the top names to look for in what should be a mass finish are Stuart O’Grady, Zabel and McEwen. Steels won a similar stage to this at Le Cap d’Agde in 1998. But this year O’Grady will be hungriest.