Stage 13 of the 2025 Tour de France offered another individual time trial this Friday. The second in this edition, but on a very different route from the first, as the riders faced a mostly uphill time trial, heading towards the summit of Peyragudes (8.1 km at 7.6%). After this crucial stage for the favorites, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet held onto his 14th place overall, while a monstrous stage loomed on Saturday towards Superbagnères.
Just 10.9 kilometres were on the day’s menu, but it still meant nearly half an hour of effort and pain for the Tour de France riders. From Loudenvielle, the route offered very little flat before tackling the decisive difficulty. “It was a course that was far from easy,” assured Nicolas Boisson, the team’s coach. “The start was slightly hilly but short, then we approached the climb of Peyragudes. It was a tough one, made even harder by this final ramp (at 16%, editor’s note), which was great for the show, but awful for the riders.” However, a communication from the organization in the morning did somewhat relieve the pressure. “Initially, the time limits were quite short, which would have forced the riders to give 100% in order to be safe,” Nicolas explained. “The time limits were eventually adjusted, which was a good thing, even if it ultimately wouldn’t have affected us. Anyway, this type of time trial requires a lot of commitment, especially for the non-climbers. No one took it easy, but not everyone gave it 100%”. Quentin Pacher set a decent time of 27:44, then Romain Grégoire set the ninth fastest provisional time at the finish, in 26:27, 1:15 behind the leader at the time, Luke Plapp.
“One or two minutes isn’t much,” Nicolas Boisson
“The point wasn’t to have a day off either, Romain felt he had good legs, so he wanted to enjoy himself,” Nicolas said. “It’s a good time,” added Romain at the finish. “Since it’s the Tour, I thought I might as well go all out. Anyway, it’s hard not to go all out with the crowd pushing you.” The last rider of the team to set off, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, reached the summit of Peyragudes in 27:22, putting him in 33rd place on the stage, 4:22 behind the yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar. “I tried to manage it well so as not to finish on the limit, and thankfully, because I still finished on the limit,” said the Frenchman with a smile. “That’s another day done. Tomorrow, it will be more about endurance, which suits me better.””We’re a bit disappointed,” added Nicolas. “He was hoping to do a little better, but we also know that “one-shot” efforts aren’t what suits him best. It’s always unfortunate to lose time, but with the big stages coming up, one or two minutes isn’t much. Guillaume is very motivated by Saturday’s stage, with a strong series of four climbs and more than 5,000 metres of elevation gain”. The leader of Groupama-FDJ will tackle it as fourteenth on GC, which was already his position before the time trial. “I hope the best legs are still to come,” Guillaume added.
