Murat (France) (AFP)

Le Puy Mary to the advantage of the Slovenes: the yellow jersey Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar dominated their rivals in the 13th stage of the Tour de France won on Friday by the Colombian Daniel Martinez.

The two Slovenes now occupy the first two places of the Tour.

With a 44-second advantage for Roglic over Pogacar after this very steep finish at Pas de Peyrol, the name of the road pass of the Auvergne volcano.

Slovenia laughs, Colombia grimaces.

If Daniel Martinez, the winner of the recent Dauphiné, signed the Andins' first success since leaving Nice, the "condors" were subdued by the Slovenes, like the outgoing winner of the Tour, Egan Bernal, who lost 38 seconds on Roglic.

Bernal let go of Pogacar's acceleration in the final.

He suffered to limit the loss of time and stay under the minute (59 seconds precisely) compared to Roglic in the standings.

At the altitude of 1589 meters, the other Colombian climbers achieved a group shot, but could not compete.

Miguel Angel Lopez only gave up about fifteen seconds to the duettists from Eastern Europe.

But Rigoberto Uran crossed the line behind Bernal and Nairo Quintana finished in their wake.

- The French are retreating -

If Colombia is still hanging on, France is retreating significantly.

In one of the emblematic sites of Auvergne, its best representatives in the ranking had a dark day.

In line with Thibaut Pinot's difficulties, following his fall at the start of the Tour.

The same misadventure occurred to Romain Bardet, who was caught after 100 kilometers in a fatal fall to the Dutchman Bauke Mollema, who was forced to retire.

Hit in the right hip, the Auvergnat, who was running on his training routes, was left behind in the Col de Neronne, the penultimate difficulty, less than 15 kilometers from the finish.

Guillaume Martin, who also crashed this week, also let go in this tough mid-mountain stage, which had the biggest drop (4400m) of this Tour.

On the line, the disbursement of the Normand, third at the start of Châtel-Guyon (Puy-de-Dôme), amounted to nearly 2 min 45 sec.

Bardet, who followed him in the standings, gave up just less.

Both were taken out of the top ten in the standings.

- Martinez shines -

Present in numbers in the breakaway formed after a thunderous start to the stage, the other Frenchmen were no more successful.

Following the example of Julian Alaphilippe who could not follow in the final.

Valentin Madouas (4th), Pierre Rolland (5th) and Nicolas Edet (6th) had to be content with accessories.

For the stage victory, Martinez edged two German riders from Team Bora, in order Lennard Kämna and Maximilian Schachmann, all grimacing under the effort.

"I felt I was going to win against Kämna," said Martinez, a 24-year-old climber who is also the Colombian time trial champion.

The American Education First team, which recruited him in 2018, is convinced of his qualities: they had him signed until 2022.

Roglic, who relied on his Jumbo team, relished the result: "It was good. I didn't know the last climb, it was quite steep!"

"Every second gained is important", estimated the yellow jersey which greeted the place of Pogacar, his young compatriot of 21 years: "He is strong, we saw it last year on the Vuelta", that Pogacar had finished on the podium (3rd).

Saturday, the 14th stage connects Clermont-Ferrand to Lyon on a 194 km course which includes a second category pass before the halfway point.

Two small ribs dot the final before the finish judged on the banks of the Rhône.

© 2020 AFP