Matteo Trentin wins Tour de France stage 14 from breakaway

Matteo Trentin wins, Tour de France 2013, stage 14

published 13 July 2013

Matteo Trentin gave Omega Pharma their second stage win in two days, winning a small group sprint into Lyon.

The Italian had been one of the least showy of an 18-strong group who'd worked their way clear of the peloton in the first half of the stage. Over three small climbs which punctuated the final run-in to the finish through the north western suburbs of France's second city, his rivals had attacked, countered and chased.

Peace broke out among the GC contenders following yesterday's fireworks. With the shadow of Mont Ventoux looming large on the horizon, there were no further attempts at testing out Team Sky, whose shaky defence of Chris Froome's yellow jersey yesterday was the talk of the start village. But with so few opportunities for successful breakaways in this year's Tour, competition to get into today's escape was fierce.

It took over an hour and a half of racing for the break to establish itself. Following the first attack, by Jens Voigt (RadioShack), Lars Bak (Lotto) and Blel Kadri (Ag2r), a constantly-changing cast of characters joined them off the front. The lead hovered between 20 seconds and a minute for a long time, until the peloton finally relented, and 18 riders disappeared over the horizon, including Britain's David Millar (Garmin), who won a Tour stage from a breakaway 12 months ago today. Their lead grew steadily in the baking hot sunshine, while Sky half-heartedly marshalled the peloton towards Lyon.

It looked like the Frenchman might get his team's first ever stage win at the Tour, but in the final flat kilometres into the city centre, he tied up. His lead melted to 10 seconds with two kilometres to go, when Marcus Burghardt (BMC) attacked and dragged himself clear, also taking Albasini with him. Burghardt couldn't quite close the gap, and when Albasini countered, he caught and passed Simon.

Geschke and Bakelandts joined the leading duo, then the rest of the group. After a desperate series of attacks and counter-attacks, it was going to come down to a group sprint. Albasini went hard down the left-hand side of the road, but Trentin appeared from way down the line and burst past Albasini to win. He'd stayed calm during the incessant attacking and chasing while others had lost their head, and was rewarded with the stage victory.

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