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Primoz Roglic reinforced his grip on the Tour de France overall lead on a day when Dan Martin had his best result of the race this year and Sam Bennett maintained his lead in the green jersey.
Roglic dropped defending champion Egan Bernal on the final climb of a grueling 13th stage at Massif Central to hold on to the yellow jersey, while Bennett retained the green jersey despite finishing at the back of the field.
Bennett crossed the line in last place on a grueling day, but kept his 66-point lead over Peter Sagan.
Martin, meanwhile, finished 11th on stage while keeping up with the breakaway group as Nicolas Roche crossed the line at 95th.
Martin is now 46th in the general classification, 1h 14’23 “behind Rogic, with Roche 70th.
Colombian Dani Martínez prevailed in the breakaway at the end of a grueling 191.5 km hike from Chatel-Guyon before the greats fought at the end of the short but brutal climb to the Puy de Mary, where the average incline increased. . above 11%.
Colombian Ineos-Grenadiers leader Bernal, who fares better on longer climbs, couldn’t keep up when Tadej Pogacar sped up, with fellow Slovenian Roglic the only driver able to keep up.
The duo crossed the line 38 seconds ahead of a grimacing Bernal, who fell to third place overall, 59 seconds off the beat.
Pogacar, 21, the most aggressive of the main contenders who was already the best man in the Pyrenees last weekend, is now second, 44 seconds behind Roglic.
“The Tour is not over yet, there is still a lot that can happen, a lot of riders are still in the mix,” said Roglic.
Eight drivers are still two minutes away, but Roglic was the most impressive, not losing his cool despite repeated attacks from Pogacar.
“I don’t want to bother looking at names and comparing myself to others. I will continue to focus on myself,” said Vuelta champion Roglic.
Bernal saw Roglic and Pogacar fade into the distance as his face became a mask of pain in the last two kilometers of the climb to the Puy Mary.
The Colombian collapsed on his bike after the finish, muttering: “Look at my numbers, they are good, the others are better.”
Bernal will now have to throw it all in the biggest battle of the Tour this year, the 17th stage, which ends in Meribel at 2,304 meters above sea level at the top of the Col de la Loze, a relentless 21.5 km climb with an average slope of 7.8%.
Friday’s stage marked the end of French hopes as Romain Bardet, who started the day fourth overall 30 seconds behind the pace, finished 2:30 behind Roglic after the 2016 runner-up suffered a heavy hit. fall before.
The AG2R-La Mondiale rider crashed on a descent and quickly got on his bike, but had to sit down again due to a bout of dizziness.
Guillaume Martin, third overall at the start, broke on the penultimate climb and crossed the line 2:46 after Roglic.
Bardet and Martin are now outside of the top 10, 3:00 and 3:14 behind Roglic, respectively.
Martinez, who appeared among the dark horses before the start in Nice after winning the Criterium du Dauphine but lost all hope in the first week, edged out Lennard Kamna in stage victory.
Kamna’s teammate at Bora-Hansgrohe and his German teammate Maximilian Schachmann took third place.
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