Hat Trick for Matteo Trentin at the Vuelta
Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Flloors) took a third stage win of the Vuelta into Tomares today, ahead of Gianni Moson (Sky). Froome retains the Red jersey
Matteo Trentin of Quick-Step Floors took a sprint victory from Team Sky's Gianni Moscon, on today's hot, long and relatively flat stage.
The green points jersey wearer, Trentin has already won Stage 4 and Stage 10 of the Vuelta this year.
Chris Froome remains in the red jersey, safely finishing in an impressive 7th place, with good team work from Team Sky.
The stage contained one single categorised climb early on..
Five riders went straight away; Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC).
Team Sky didn't seemed interested in chasing and a gap of four minutes opened up before the first categorised climb.
Cannondale’s Davide Villella took the KOM points on the climb, and drifted back to the main peloton.
Quick-Step Floors took up the chase helped by Cannondale-Drapac.
With 70kms to go, the break's lead was down to less than two minutes.
De Marchi and De Gendt attacked their breakaway companions with 20 kms to go, but De Gendt to be struck by cramp and De Marchi soloed on.
He continued on but with 6kms to ge he was swallowed up by the increasingly fast paced peloton, who were gearing up for the final sprint.
Quick-Step Floors traing lead the peloton until they hit a significant short punchy climb with 3 kms to go.
Bob Jungels set the pace and then Astana's Alexey Lutsenko went on the attack only to drop a gear and lose his momentum.
In the final sprint Matteo Trentin came round his rivals winning by a few bike lengths, behind Sky's Gianni Moscon sprinted to second ahead with many GC contenders including Froome just behind.
The victory makes five stage wins for Quick-Step Floors in this year's Vuelta so far.
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 13 Top Ten
1 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 4:25:13
2 Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Sky
3 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
4 Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
5 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Cannondale-Drapac
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
7 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
8 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
9 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage 13
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 53:48:06
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:59
3 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:02:13
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:17
5 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:23
6 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:25
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:02:37
8 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:02:41
9 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:13
10 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:03:58