2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
The second of the opening weekend's stages in Italy was regarded as the queen stage of the 2013 Tour de Pologne. On the parcours of 206.5 km (128.3 mi), there were three categorised climbs – each one being designated as a first-category ascent – all of which came within the final third of the stage. After an undulating start out of Marilleva in the Val di Sole, the peloton passed through all three of the day's intermediate sprints prior to reaching the foot of the first climb, passing the points in Fondo, Cembra and Cavalese respectively.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
The first climb was the Passo di Pampeago, which hosted a stage finish of the 2012 Giro d'Italia; after summiting the climb at over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), the riders descended towards Ponte Nova, and the bottom of the second climb, the Passo di Costalunga, with ramps of up to 21%. From a steady descent, the road gradually rose towards the Passo Pordoi; a climb averaging 6.8%, but reaching 16% in places. The mountain points were on offer at 2,100 metres (6,900 ft), but the race continued on for another 2.5 km (1.6 mi), finishing at 2,239 metres (7,346 ft) above sea level.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
During the early kilometres of the stage, a group – which at one point, topped out at sixteen riders – were able to go clear to form the breakaway of the day. With Lampre–Merida and Colombia pacing the peloton for the leaders overall, Diego Ulissi and Darwin Atapuma, the lead group were able to accumulate a lead of over five minutes at one point during the stage.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
At the intermediate sprints, NetApp–Endura's Bartosz Huzarski was able to extend his lead in the classification, by being first across the line at two of the three points, with a second place at the other.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
The group split apart on the Passo di Pampeago; after an attack by Astana's Vincenzo Nibali – having lost nine minutes on the opening stage – the group was reduced to six riders, with it now consisting of Polish riders Tomasz Marczyński (Vacansoleil–DCM) and Maciej Paterski (Cannondale), Tour de France stage winner Christophe Riblon of Ag2r–La Mondiale, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Zdeněk Štybar, RadioShack–Leopard rider Thomas Rohregger and Georg Preidler of the Argos–Shimano team. Nibali himself was dropped, and ultimately lost 23' 44" on the stage.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
Ulissi got into difficulty on the day's second climb, and was soon shelled out of the back of the main group, as the Movistar Team took over pace-setting as the field moved towards the Passo Pordoi. The Polish contingent of the leaders attacked first on the climb, but Rohregger and Riblon were able to bridge up to them, before Riblon set off on his own up the ascent, with around 8 km (5.0 mi) remaining.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
Quickly gaining time on his rivals, Riblon – only competing in the race following an injury to Jean-Christophe Péraud at the Tour de France – remained in the saddle all the way up the climb, and would ultimately go on to take his second queen stage success in the space of two weeks, following on from his win at Alpe d'Huez. Rohregger crossed the line second, just over a minute behind with Preidler in third.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
Team Sky's Sergio Henao and Rafał Majka of Saxo–Tinkoff led the main field home at 1' 35" down, and despite the time bonuses that Riblon and Rohregger received – both for their stage finishes and the "attractivity" standings for the stage – Majka assumed the race lead, by four seconds from Henao, before the race's return to Polish soil, via the rest day.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
The race resumed after the rest day with a stage predominantly suited towards the sprinters that had elected to compete in the race. Starting in Kraków, the parcours of 226 km (140.4 mi) was run entirely between 200 and 400 metres above sea level, with several, short climbs; despite this, there was only one categorised climb throughout the day, a third-category ascent in the village of Lubenia, around 35 km (21.7 mi) before the conclusion of the stage in Rzeszów.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
A finishing circuit was also utilised in Rzeszów; three laps of a circuit 6 km (3.7 mi) in length were to be completed, to round off the day's running. Weather conditions were also expected to play a factor in the running of the stage, with spells of rain throughout the day.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
After several riders hit the tarmac in the opening kilometres due to the expected rain materialising, a four-rider breakaway move was eventually able to be established, with the quartet made up of Astana rider Alexsandr Dyachenko, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Ricardo Mestre, Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil–DCM), and Bartłomiej Matysiak, representing the home CCC–Polsat–Polkowice team. The quartet were able to build up a lead in excess of ten minutes at one point during the stage, before the teams of the sprinters soon stepped up the pace at the front of the peloton.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
The gap had been halved by the 60 km (37.3 mi) to go mark, and was down to 1' 30", by the time that the leaders reached the finishing circuit in Rzeszów. Matysiak had taken maximum points out on the road, at the two intermediate sprints – coming at Strzyżów and Lubenia respectively – on the course, as well as at the third-category ascent in Lubenia.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
Despite the pace that the BMC Racing Team were setting on the front of the main field, the lead group were managing to resist being caught, with Selvaggi setting the tempo for the leaders as they were circling in Rzeszów. At the start of the final circuit, Dyachenko attacked his companions, with the peloton now inside of half a minute behind the quartet. The catch was made with around 1.5 km (0.9 mi) remaining of the stage, setting up the sprint finish.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
Belkin Pro Cycling led into the final kilometre for Mark Renshaw, but Taylor Phinney moved up the line, to set tempo for team-mate Thor Hushovd; Renshaw was therefore forced to launch his sprint first to get around Hushovd, but Hushovd was able to hit the line first to take his first victory at World Tour level since the 2011 Tour de France. Renshaw was able to get the better of Garmin–Sharp's Steele Von Hoff for second place, while Rafał Majka was able to maintain his four-second lead in the general classification for Saxo–Tinkoff.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
With a parcours of 231.5 km (143.8 mi), the fourth stage of the Tour de Pologne was also its longest for the 2013 edition. Having gone in an easterly direction out of Kraków the previous day, the race returned to the west once again. Starting in Tarnów, the early kilometres of the stage were relatively flat, before some rolling terrain was negotiated in the middle portion of the route; there was only one categorised climb on the day, but this did not occur until the riders had reached Katowice. Three intermediate sprints were also held during the stage, offering up bonus time towards the general classification; these came at Szczurowa, Olkusz and Siemianowice Śląskie respectively. A finishing circuit was again utilised, with four laps of a circuit 12.3 km (7.6 mi) in length to be completed in Katowice.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
Eight riders from seven different teams were able to get out front and form the day's primary breakaway, but none of the octet were a threat the lead of Saxo–Tinkoff rider Rafał Majka in the general classification. Despite this, the peloton did not allow for a substantial gap to be created on the road, with the maximum advantage remaining beneath five minutes for the entire stage.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
The advantage had reduced to around 90 seconds, by the time that the leaders reaching Katowice for the finishing circuits; CCC–Polsat–Polkowice's Jacek Morajko had picked up most points at the intermediate sprints, taking two victories and a second place for a tally of eight. Kamil Gradek, riding for a Polish selective team picked up the other first place finish at a sprint, winning at Olkusz.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
With the peloton still cutting into the lead that the group of eight riders had held up front, Gradek launched a solo attack with two laps to cover. He held a lead of 45 seconds into the penultimate circuit, but the main field continued to eat into his lead by the kilometre; not long after he had taken the bell to start the final lap, Gradek's move was neutralised by the peloton.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
After a similar move by Astana rider Valerio Agnoli resulted in a neutralisation as well, Taylor Phinney attacked with around 7.5 km (4.7 mi) remaining for the BMC Racing Team. A former under-23 world time trial champion, Phinney was able to gain about fifteen seconds of an advantage into the final kilometre, and despite the peloton closing in at a vast rate, he held on to take the first road race victory of his professional career. Garmin–Sharp's Steele Von Hoff added a second place, to his third place from the previous stage – and took the points classification lead, from Majka – while Yauheni Hutarovich completed the top three for Ag2r–La Mondiale.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
After the two predicted sprint stages had both fallen the way of BMC Racing Team riders, the fifth stage was designed to eliminate the pure sprinters with a hilly parcours of 160.5 km (99.7 mi) in length. On the route, there were a total of six categorised climbs; the first-category ascent at Łapszanka was only climbed once, ahead of the peloton moving into a lengthy, finishing circuit around Zakopane.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
It entered the circuit 21.5 km (13.4 mi) around the lap of 40.5 km (25.2 mi), with another climb – the second-category Droga do Olczy – to be passed over 3.2 km (2.0 mi) before reaching the finish line, prior to two further laps of the circuit. Also included on the circuit, was the first-category Głodówka, just before halfway on the circuit. Both climbs featured in the previous edition of the Tour, when Ben Swift took the stage honours in Zakopane.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
Several mini-attacks were closed down within the opening kilometres of the stage, before an eight-rider breakaway was given freedom to establish a gap on the road; the group included four Polish riders, while Colombia's Darwin Atapuma – who had finished second to Lampre–Merida rider Diego Ulissi on the opening stage – was also part of the octet. Atapuma dropped back from the leaders after the Łapszanka, as Saxo–Tinkoff were guarding the gap to the race's overall leader, Rafał Majka; Atapuma had started the day trailing Majka by just over five minutes in the general classification.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
The leaders' gap extended out towards five minutes with Tomasz Marczyński (Vacansoleil–DCM) accruing the most points to challenge Thomas Rohregger's lead of the mountains classification. The seven leaders entered the final lap with a lead of around one minute over the peloton, which was being led by NetApp–Endura and Colombia. The breakaway fractured ever so slightly just before the final climb of the Głodówka, with CCC–Polsat–Polkowice's Nikolay Mihaylov being the last of the seven to be caught, with around 20 km (12.4 mi) to cover.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
On the descent from the climb, six riders were able to form an alliance, including Atapuma, second stage winner Christophe Riblon (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and RadioShack–Leopard rider Robert Kišerlovski; the latter pair trailing Majka by six and sixteen seconds respectively. The group were able to get as much as twenty seconds clear before Majka and his team started to pull them back, catching with 5 km (3.1 mi) to go.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
Jon Izagirre of Euskaltel–Euskadi led over the Droga do Olczy, before a long uphill drag to the finish; Team Sky's Rigoberto Urán tried to lead out Sergio Henao for the victory, but for the third day running, a BMC Racing Team rider took the honours. Thor Hushovd followed Henao up the road, and launched his sprint from his rear wheel, and ultimately took the stage honours by a bike length from FDJ.fr rider Mathieu Ladagnous, and Cannondale's Daniele Ratto completed the podium.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 5
Izagirre assumed the overall race lead, after acquiring ten bonus seconds, through a third place in the day's attractivity classification – he added a second place on the final Głodówka ascent, to the first place points for the Droga do Olczy – to pass Majka by one second. Hushovd picked up the white jersey as points leader from Garmin–Sharp's Steele Von Hoff, while Marczyński deposed Rohregger as mountains leader.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
As was customary in the recent editions of the Tour de Pologne, the penultimate stage of the race involved a circuit race in and around the village of Bukowina Tatrzańska. To make up the parcours of 192 km (119.3 mi), the remainder of the peloton had to complete five laps, of a circuit 38.4 km (23.9 mi) in length, with two categorised climbs – both of which being first-category ascents – on each of the laps to be covered.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
Around 12 km (7.5 mi) into each lap, there was an ascent in the village of Ząb, with a maximum gradient of 11.4%, and a much steeper climb in Gliczarów Górny, with a maximum gradient of 21.5%. On the final lap of the circuit, there were double points on offer for the Gliczarów Górny ascent, which came just 12.2 km (7.6 mi) before the uncategorised 5 km (3.1 mi) uphill drag to the finish line. In total, the riders completed over 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) of climbing by stage's end.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
A large group of 32 riders – around a quarter of the peloton – were able to get clear on the opening lap of the circuit, before the move splintered; Colombia's Darwin Atapuma was able to force a move along with sprints classification leader Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp–Endura), Nikolay Mihaylov of the CCC–Polsat–Polkowice team and Vacansoleil–DCM's Bert-Jan Lindeman. The quartet managed to build up a lead in excess of three minutes, but this grouping were ultimately brought back around halfway through the stage, on the third lap of the circuit.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
Atapuma – who had been in the breakaway the previous day, before he had to cede back to the peloton – was punchy enough to get into the second main attack of the day; a nine-rider group went clear on the stage, which was ultimately later reduced to seven riders who for the majority of the third and fourth laps and the first half of the final lap, were continually attacking and regrouping to one another.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
Atapuma went on to attack on the final climb at Gliczarów Górny, taking the twenty points on offer for leading across the summit; he was closely followed by Team Katusha's Sergey Chernetskiy, who was able to catch Atapuma on the descent from the climb. This duo worked together as they closed in on the finish; while behind, Ag2r–La Mondiale rider Christophe Riblon attacked from the peloton, in the hope of acquiring the overall lead from Euskaltel–Euskadi's Jon Izagirre, ahead of the final time trial.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 6
Having dropped Chernetskiy, Atapuma was setting the pace alone until Riblon joined him, having got rid of the remnants of the breakaway before reaching him. Atapuma and Riblon remained clear of the field all the way to finish, with both riders claiming honours at the line; Atapuma took his – and his team's – first victory of 2013, while Riblon was able to gain 26 seconds on Izagirre (20 seconds on time, plus 6 for bonuses), in order to take a 19-second lead overnight, while also taking the points classification lead.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
For the first time since the 2005 edition of the race, an individual time trial was scheduled as one of the stages; just as it was in 2005, it was to be held as the race-concluding stage. On that day, Thomas Dekker was the winner of a 19 km (11.8 mi) test in Karpacz. In the 2013 edition, a time trial almost double that length was held, over an undulating parcours of 37 km (23.0 mi) in length.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
Starting in Wieliczka, the course went out on a 15 km (9.3 mi) loop around the town, passing through Koźmice Wielkie and Raciborsko, before heading towards the finish in Kraków, and a technical closing kilometre, with several sharp corners. With the top ten being covered overnight by 41 seconds, it set up the possibility for major changes within the standings by stage's end. As was customary of time trial stages, cyclists set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Thus, Ji Cheng of Argos–Shimano, who, in 113th place, trailed overall leader Christophe Riblon (Ag2r–La Mondiale) by two hours, twenty-six minutes and fifty-four seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
Although he was first to start, he was not the first rider to cross the finish in Kraków; despite starting the stage seven minutes after Ji, Taylor Phinney of the BMC Racing Team passed the six riders who started before him, and eventually crossed the line in a time of 47' 50" for the course.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
His time was beaten by just two riders; having held the lead for around half an hour, RadioShack–Leopard's Fabian Cancellara overhauled the time of Phinney by eighteen seconds, before both riders were well beaten by the time of Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins, in his return to racing after withdrawing from the Giro d'Italia. He surpassed Cancellara's time at the intermediate time-check, and ultimately went on to record a time of 46' 36", beating the time of Cancellara by 56 seconds; a result that left Cancellara disappointed.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
It was good enough for him to take his first victory of the 2013 season, building his form ahead of the World Championships in Florence. With the stage being decided – along with Cancellara and Phinney, only Phinney's team-mate Marco Pinotti was able to get within 90 seconds of the time set by Wiggins on the course – the focus for the stage shifted towards the battle for the general classification and the overall victory.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
Eros Capecchi (Movistar Team) was able to catch his two-minute man Robert Kišerlovski (RadioShack–Leopard) in the closing stages of the course, and he was able to move ahead of Ag2r–La Mondiale's Domenico Pozzovivo for sixth place overall. Orica–GreenEDGE rider Pieter Weening followed them on the course, and was putting pressure on the best times at the intermediate time-check, before fading to a sixth place finish, 1' 44" on Wiggins' time, but setting a target for the four riders behind.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
Indeed, the four riders ahead of Weening in the general classification all trailed to him at the intermediate point; Sergio Henao (Team Sky) and Riblon lost 18 seconds, best Pole Rafał Majka (Saxo–Tinkoff) trailed by 24, while Euskaltel–Euskadi's Jon Izagirre lost 45 seconds. Henao faded further behind on the second half of the course, and finished nearly a minute down on Weening by the end, while Majka lost nine seconds over the same section.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 7
Izagirre's second half of the course was strongest of the contenders, but still had a deficit of 21 seconds to Weening on the stage results, and 13 in the general classification. Riblon tried his best to keep his lead to the end, but ultimately, his performance ceded 43 seconds to Weening, which meant that Weening had moved up four places in the rankings, to take the first major stage race of his career; Izagirre also passed Riblon for second place, by just three seconds. Riblon also lost the points classification on the final stage, with the white jersey passing to Majka.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Classification leadership table
In the 2013 Tour de Pologne, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, and the leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the 2013 Tour de Pologne, and the winner of the classification is the winner of the race. Time bonuses for the general classification were accrued via two methods; at stage finishes, for the first three riders, time bonuses were applied on a scale of ten seconds to the winner, six for second and four for third.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Classification leadership table
The other way came via the newly introduced "attractivity" classification, which ranked riders daily as to their performances at each categorised climb or intermediate sprint during the equivalent day's stage, which offered points to the riders on a 3–2–1 scale. The rider with the most points in the classification at the end of the stage received a 30-second time bonus, with second place receiving 20 seconds, and third place receiving a bonus of 10 seconds. Any placings resulting in a tie would see each rider receiving the time bonus for the highest position.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Classification leadership table
There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a fuchsia jersey, representing the Tauron Group, the sponsors of the classification. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs, which were split into three distinctive categories. Double points were awarded for the final climb of the race, on the penultimate stage. The third jersey represented the points classification, marked by a white-and-red jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing in the top 20 in a stage.


2013 Tour de Pologne, Classification leadership table
For all stages, the win earned 20 points, second place earned 19 points, third 18, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 20th. The fourth jersey represented the sprints classification, marked by a red jersey. In the sprints classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 3 at intermediate sprint points during each stage, with the exception of the individual time trial stages. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.


2013 Tour de Romandie
The 2013 Tour de Romandie was the 67th running of the Tour de Romandie cycling stage race. The race consisted of six stages, beginning with a prologue stage in Le Châble on 23 April and concluded with another individual time trial, in Geneva, on 28 April. It was the fourteenth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season.


2013 Tour de Romandie
The race was won by Great Britain's Chris Froome of Team Sky, who led the race from start to finish – the first time that a Team Sky rider had led from start-to-finish – after winning the opening prologue in Le Châble, extending his advantage towards the end of the race. Ultimately, Froome won the general classification by 54 seconds over runner-up Simon Špilak (Team Katusha), who was the winner of the race's queen stage – the fourth stage – to Les Diablerets, ahead of Froome. The podium was completed by Rui Costa of the Movistar Team, who finished third for the second year in a row. Costa finished 55 seconds behind Špilak, and one minute 49 seconds behind Froome.


2013 Tour de Romandie
In the race's other classifications, Blanco Pro Cycling's Wilco Kelderman was the winner of the white jersey for the young rider classification as he was the highest placed rider born in 1988 or later, finishing in fifth place overall after taking the jersey from FDJ's Thibaut Pinot during the final time trial. Matthias Brändle of IAM Cycling won the green jersey for the most points gained in intermediate sprints, while the pink jersey for the King of the Mountains classification went to Marcus Burghardt of the BMC Racing Team. The teams classification was won by Team Sky for the second year in a row, after placing Richie Porte inside the top ten overall as well as Froome.


2013 Tour de Romandie, Teams
As the Tour de Romandie was a UCI World Tour event, all UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Originally, eighteen ProTeams were scheduled to be invited to the race, with two other squads – Team Europcar and IAM Cycling – given wildcard places, and as such, would have formed the event's 20-team peloton. Team Katusha subsequently regained their ProTour status after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. With Team Katusha not originally invited to the race, race organisers announced their inclusion to the race, bringing the total number of teams competing to twenty-one.


2013 Tour de Romandie, Teams
Among the 168-rider start list – each team entered eight riders for the race – were two previous winners of the race. 2009 winner Roman Kreuziger was the designated leader for Saxo–Tinkoff, while Team Katusha's Simon Špilak, who was the winner of the 2010 event – after on-the road winner Alejandro Valverde had his results expunged – was their respective leader. Valverde was also in attendance at the race, leading the Movistar Team alongside Rui Costa, who finished third in 2012.


2013 Tour de Romandie, Classification leadership table
In the 2013 Tour de Romandie, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, and allowing time bonuses in mass-start stages, the leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the 2013 Tour de Romandie, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.


2013 Tour de Romandie, Classification leadership table
Additionally, there was a young rider classification, which awarded a white jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders born after 1 January 1988 were eligible to be ranked in the classification. There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a pink jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs; there were fourteen categorised climbs in the race, split into three distinctive categories.


2013 Tour de Romandie, Classification leadership table
The fourth jersey represented the sprints classification, marked by a green jersey. In the sprints classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 3 at intermediate sprint points during each stage, with the exception of the individual time trial stages. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.


2013 Tour de San Luis
The 2013 Tour de San Luis was the 7th edition of the Tour de San Luis stage race. It was part of the 2012–2013 UCI America Tour, and took place between 21 and 27 January 2013. The race was won by Daniel Díaz of the San Luis Somos Todos squad, which enjoyed a successful event, as their riders Emmanuel Guevara and Leandro Messineo took the mountains classification and the sprints classification, respectively. The youth classification went to Alejandro Sivori of the Argentine National team and the team classification went to BMC Racing Team.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 1
The first stage contained no major difficulties, with the only categorised climb of the 164 km (101.9 mi) parcours being a Category 3 climb, the Alto Saladillo, situated 55 km (34 mi) from the start. From that point, the course was mostly a descending false flat to the finish in Villa Mercedes.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 1
A breakaway of seven riders racing for non-World Tour teams formed and enjoyed a lead of eight minutes as they crested the Alto Saladillo. Flavio de Luna from a Mexican selective team was the first atop the climb, which earned him the red jersey for the mountains classification leader at the end of the stage. Upon the descent, the sprinters' teams Omega Pharma–Quick-Step, Cannondale, Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela and Lampre–Merida took station at the front of the peloton, bringing the escapees' advantage down to four minutes with 55 km (34 mi) remaining.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 1
The remnants of the break were ultimately caught in the closing stages, setting up a bunch sprint finish. Peter Sagan tried to lead-out his teammate Lucas Sebastián Haedo to the line, but a crash occurred in the final 500 metres (1,600 feet) stunting most teams' lead-outs. Mark Cavendish avoided the incident, launching from the Lampre–Merida train and won clearly, ahead of rivals Sacha Modolo and Alessandro Petacchi, to take a début victory for his new team, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 2
The parcours for the second stage was relatively similar to the previous stage, with only one categorised climb – the third-category Alto Paso Grande coming in the first third of the race – during its 171.4 km (106.5 mi) itinerary. The finish at Terrazas del Portezuelo provided the riders with a twisty uphill finish, but was still expected to provide a sprint finish.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 2
A five-rider move went clear after 8 km (5.0 mi) of racing, including Emmanuel Guevara of local team San Luis Somos Todos, who was first atop the only climb of the day, moving him level on points with the mountains classification leader, Flavio de Luna. Guevara later had to depart from the breakaway due to him feeling unwell. Nevertheless, the break enjoyed a maximum lead of almost five minutes, but was reeled in mostly by the Cannondale and Omega Pharma–Quick-Step teams.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 2
Sacha Modolo of Bardiani Valvole–CSF Inox derailed the big teams' plans as he beat rivals Mark Cavendish and Leigh Howard in the sprint. Modolo confided afterward that he learned the finish was uphill during the race while chatting with other riders, as he first thought it would be flat. Along with the victory, Modolo assumed the leader's jersey from Cavendish, on countback.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 3
Stage 3 was denoted as the queen stage of the race, and included two categorised climbs in the opening half of the stage; a third-category climb was followed by the first-category Alto de Nogoli climb, at the midway point. The stage continued up to a summit finish, on the first-category Mirador del Potrero, above Lake Potrero de los Funes.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 3
A breakaway of seven riders went clear early on, and included San Luis Somos Todos teammates Jorge Giacinti and Leandro Messineo. Giacinti was the first rider to cross each of the first two climbs of the day in front, collecting enough points to take the mountains classification jersey. Messineo would also join Giacinti during the post-stage ceremonies, as he won the two intermediate sprints of the stage, which was sufficient to take the sprint classification jersey from Walter Pérez. The breakaway was eventually caught by a group of forty riders with 30 kilometres (19 mi) to go.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 3
At the foot of the 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) long Mirador del Potrero ascent, Alex Correia Diniz of Funvic Brasilinvest–São José dos Campos attacked and maintained a slight advantage on the chasers throughout the climb itself, as the gradient increased. The chase was led by a small group which dropped pre-race favourites Alberto Contador (Saxo–Tinkoff), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) among others. Diniz held on to cross the finish line solo with an advantage of 24 seconds over his closest rival, Mauro Santambrogio of Vini Fantini–Selle Italia. With that victory, Diniz took the lead in the overall classification from overnight leader Sacha Modolo, stating that his result was "huge" for Brazilian cycling.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 4
The individual time trial stage was mainly flat, with an elevation change of 100 metres (330 ft) over the first 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), at which point the riders took a 180-degree hairpin turn and rode the course in the opposite direction, back to the starting point.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 4
Canadian Svein Tuft (Orica–GreenEDGE) prevailed with a time of 22' 14", with sprints classification leader Leandro Messineo taking second place, seven seconds behind Tuft. The overall classification leader changed once again as Michał Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) recorded the third-fastest time for the course and claimed the race's lead from Alex Correia Diniz of Funvic Brasilinvest–São José dos Campos. At the 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) point, Kwiatkowski had recorded the fastest time, some eleven seconds quicker than Tuft, however Tuft's second element of the stage allowed him to move up to the stage victory. After his victory, Tuft said that the wind was a major factor on the course.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 5
The first 130 kilometres (81 mi) of Stage 5 were mostly flat, before two categorised climbs within the final 40 kilometres (25 mi). A third-category climb was immediately followed by the first-category Cerro al Amago ascent, a climb of 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi) in length with an average gradient of 7.2%. The terrain then became mostly flat until the finish line in Carolina.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 5
Emmanuel Guevara of San Luis Somos Todos and Vojtěch Hačecký of ASC Dukla Praha broke away early and were given some freedom by the peloton since neither rider was a threat for the overall classification. Enjoying the tailwind, the duo had a maximum gap of seventeen minutes. Guevara dropped Hačecký on the slopes of the Cerro al Amago, and still had an advantage of fifteen minutes with 24 kilometres (15 mi) to go.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 5
The bunch tackled with the climb and BMC Racing Team put the pressure on, working for their leader Tejay van Garderen, who had been in second place in the general classification overnight, 23 seconds behind the leader Michał Kwiatkowski of Omega Pharma–Quick-Step. Kwiatkowski himself was struggling on the climb, and was soon distanced, and ensured that the leader's jersey would change hands again. Alberto Contador and Daniel Díaz attacked, but Contador could not sustain the tempo set by Díaz, and fell back to the small group containing van Garderen.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 5
Díaz almost made the junction with his fading teammate Guevara, finishing fifteen seconds behind. Guevara barely had the strength for a victory salute, as he crossed the line by swerving dangerously. The stage was a double success for their San Luis Somos Todos team, since Díaz had gained enough time to move in the first spot of the general classification.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 6
Stage 6 was the last mountain stage of the Tour. It contained three categorised climbs, starting with the second-category Alto de Cantana in the first half of the race. The course was then undulating until the uphill finish, commencing with a third-category climb immediately followed by the first-category Mirador del Sol, a 7 km (4.3 mi) long ascent at an average gradient of 8.75%. It was being used in the race for the second consecutive year as a summit finish, as in 2012, Alberto Contador won ahead of Daniel Díaz, but was later stripped of the result.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 6
A breakaway of four riders formed, consisting of Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare), Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini–Selle Italia), Adriano Malori (Lampre–Merida) and Pieter Weening (Orica–GreenEDGE). Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela) joined them later on, and the group maintained an advantage of three minutes over much of the course, until they were caught at the foot of the Mirador del Sol. Nicki Sørensen of Saxo–Tinkoff was the first to attack on the climb, but was brought back by the BMC Racing Team-led field who tried to isolate Díaz for their leader Tejay van Garderen; van Garderen attacked himself, but could not distance Díaz.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 6
The group was reduced to about a dozen riders when Contador accelerated in sight of the flamme rouge, creating a sizable gap. Díaz managed to get back to him, before Contador kicked again in the closing stages to win, but Díaz followed him, just two seconds in arrears. Funvic Brasilinvest–São José dos Campos rider Alex Correia Diniz caught the duo shortly before the finish line, and also finished two seconds back. Van Garderen, second in the overall classification, lost eighteen seconds to Contador and found himself 33 seconds in arrears of Díaz, with Diniz a close third at 39 seconds.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 7
The last stage of the race was held over a slightly undulating course which included only one categorised climb; a third-category ascent situated 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the start.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 7
Going into the stage, the mountains classification was led by Emmanuel Guevara, but he had the same number of points (16) as Alex Correia Diniz, meaning the only categorised climb would determine the winner of that competition. However, neither rider were in a position to score points; thus Guevara won the King of the Mountains competition of the Tour.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 7
The breakaway of the day was composed of eight riders, with Michał Kwiatkowski the best-ranked overall in the general classification, 3' 32" behind race leader Daniel Díaz. Later on, three chasers made the junction, and their lead peaked at 3' 40" with 59 kilometres (37 mi) to go, making Kwiatkowski the virtual leader for a limited amount of time. The teams of the general classification leaders started to work in a concerted effort at the front of the peloton and with 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to go, the break was nullified.


2013 Tour de San Luis, Stages, Stage 7
The finishing mass sprint was won by Mattia Gavazzi (Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela), his first victory since returning from a 30-month doping ban; his last victory came at the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda in 2010. Díaz finished with the main group, and won the overall classification. His team, San Luis Somos Todos, enjoyed other successes; adding to Guevara's mountains victory, Leandro Messineo won the sprints classification.


2013 Tour de Suisse
The 2013 Tour de Suisse was the 77th running of the Tour de Suisse cycling stage race. It started on 8 June with an individual time trial in Quinto and ended on 16 June after another individual time trial in Flumserberg; in total, the race consisted of nine stages. It was the seventeenth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season.


2013 Tour de Suisse
The race was won for the second successive year by Movistar Team rider Rui Costa, who claimed the leader's yellow jersey after winning the final stage – a time trial, with a 10 km (6.2 mi) climb to a summit finish – overturning a 13-second deficit to previous race leader Mathias Frank of the BMC Racing Team. Costa was also the winner of the race's queen stage two days prior, winning into La Punt. Costa's winning margin over runner-up Bauke Mollema of Blanco Pro Cycling – a stage winner during the race, winning the second stage – was sixty-two seconds, while the podium was completed by Saxo–Tinkoff's Roman Kreuziger, eight seconds down on Mollema and seventy behind Costa.


2013 Tour de Suisse
In the race's other classifications, Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Robert Vrečer was the winner of both the mountains and the sprints classifications, having featured in several breakaways during the nine-day race. Peter Sagan (Cannondale) again won the points classification, and was the only other rider to win multiple stages during the event. Astana finished at the head of the teams classification, for the second successive year.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Teams
As the Tour de Suisse was a UCI World Tour event, all UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Originally, eighteen ProTeams were scheduled to be invited to the race, with two other squads – IAM Cycling, and Sojasun – given wildcard places, and as such, would have formed the event's 20-team peloton. Team Katusha subsequently regained their ProTour status after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. With Team Katusha not originally invited to the race, race organisers announced their inclusion to the race, bringing the total number of teams competing to twenty-one.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Teams
Among the 167-rider starting peloton – each team entered eight riders with the exception of Vacansoleil–DCM, who entered seven – were four previous winners of the race. 2008 winner Roman Kreuziger was the designated team leader for Saxo–Tinkoff, while 2009 winner Fabian Cancellara occupied a similar role for RadioShack–Leopard. The Movistar Team had two previous riders among their octet; Vladimir Karpets, who won the race in 2007, served as one of the domestiques for the defending race-winner Rui Costa.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 1
After three years of opening with an individual time trial stage around the city of Lugano, the municipality of Quinto played host to the opening salvo of the 2013 edition of the Tour de Suisse.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 1
Starting and finishing at Ambri Airport, the 8.1 km (5.0 mi) parcours was set to favour the time trial specialists more so than the 2012 race-opening stage, with slightly less undulation on the route; the only major spike of note on the route – the route was compact, with no more than 100 metres (330 ft) of undulating parcours – was a 300 metres (980 ft) climb of 7% with around 2 km (1.2 mi) remaining of the stage. From the climb, the route descended back down towards the airport, with a run-in including a finishing straight of 300 metres (980 ft). Race organisers expected the best time for the stage to be beneath the ten-minute barrier, with a time of 9' 55".


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 1
Sojasun rider Yannick Talabardon was the first rider into the stage, and he recorded a time of 10' 32", which was instantaneously beaten by the next rider on the road, Reto Hollenstein of the IAM Cycling team; Hollenstein recorded a time exactly equal to the organisers' predicted winning time of 9' 55". However, Hollenstein was not to win with such a time, as after half an hour with the best time, Alex Rasmussen (Garmin–Sharp) knocked a second off the best time. Rasmussen held the fastest time for around fifteen minutes until Cameron Meyer comfortably beat that time for Orica–GreenEDGE.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 1
Although not the fastest through the intermediate time-check, Meyer crossed the line in a time of 9' 39", beating Rasmussen's time by fifteen seconds over the course. A shift in wind direction aided Meyer's bid to win the stage, and after two hours passed, Meyer was able to take the stage victory, and the first yellow jersey. Several of the main contenders for the stage were caught out by the wind; Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack–Leopard) lost 22 seconds to Meyer, while Cannondale's Peter Sagan just broke the top 40 in the stage results, as he lost 35 seconds over the course.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
After originally being scheduled to be held over a distance of 170.7 km (106.1 mi), race organisers announced prior to the race that the stage would be shortened to 161.3 km (100.2 mi). A further amendment was made the night before the stage was due to be run, reducing the stage yet further, to 117.2 km (72.8 mi). The amendment was due to heavy snow on what was due to be the first categorised climb of the race, the Nufenen Pass, which had made the roads impassable.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
The stage start was moved to Ulrichen, which had been due to be the first town in which the peloton would have passed on the descent from the climb. The new parcours was largely downhill to start, before flattening out; it passed through two intermediate sprint points at Sierre and Sion before reaching the first-category climb to Crans-Montana. A 16 km (9.9 mi) long climb, the ascent averaged over 6%, and was featuring in the race after a year's absence in 2012; the previous stage finish was won by Mauricio Soler in 2011, before he crashed heavily later in that race, which ultimately ended his cycling career.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
After a quick opening to the stage, the breakaway was formed inside the opening 20 km (12.4 mi) of racing. Movistar Team rider Enrique Sanz was joined by Ag2r–La Mondiale's Christophe Riblon, Adrián Sáez (Euskaltel–Euskadi) and Johannes Fröhlinger of Argos–Shimano made up the group, and managed to accrue a maximum advantage of approaching three minutes around halfway through the stage. Sanz led the group through each of the intermediate sprint points, as the peloton started to close on the lead quartet.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
Riblon attacked his companions with around 25 km (15.5 mi) remaining, but he was caught several kilometres later, and the group as a whole were caught just as the final climb commenced. FDJ led onto the climb, with Thibaut Pinot expected to challenge for the stage. Dan Martin (Garmin–Sharp) launched the first major attack on the ascent, with his team-mate Ryder Hesjedal eventually bridging up to him with three other riders.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
A high pace that was being set by the Garmin–Sharp duo reduced the group of five to just three, with only Astana rider Tanel Kangert being able to stick within the small group, which was around fifteen seconds ahead of the main field. Hesjedal then took the front, and Martin dropped back, which allowed the gap to further extend up to half a minute with around 6 km (3.7 mi) remaining. Hesjedal kicked on from Kangert a couple of kilometres later, and led across the line in which mountains classification points were being offered.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
Several other riders launched punchy moves as they approached the final kilometre, with the strongest coming from IAM Cycling's Johann Tschopp and Bauke Mollema of Blanco Pro Cycling. Mollema closed in on Hesjedal inside the final kilometre, and accelerated away to claim his first stage victory since the 2010 Tour de Pologne, despite receiving a 20-second penalty post-stage for receiving a bidon in an area too close to the finish. Overnight leader Cameron Meyer (Orica–GreenEDGE) was able to maintain the yellow jersey by three seconds from Hesjedal.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
The third stage of the race was a transitional stage, starting from Montreux alongside the banks of Lake Geneva and heading north towards Bern on an undulating route. This route included a third-category climb at the Chemin de Lorette in Fribourg, as it meandered its way towards the stage finish at Meiringen. Prior to reaching Meiringen for the first time, an intermediate sprint point was passed in the village of Brienz, on the northern shore of Lake Brienz.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
At Meiringen, there was a short, punchy fourth-category climb at the Grimselstrasse, a 2 km (1.2 mi) climb of 5.6% in gradient, and after another intermediate sprint at Innertkirchen, set the riders up for the day's major ascent. That ascent was the first-category climb of the Hasliberg, measuring 6.3% over 12 km (7.5 mi), with portions approaching 10%; the gradient was stunted somewhat by a short false-flat halfway up the climb. A fast, technical descent – with speeds reaching a maximum of around 90 km/h (56 mph) – followed the summit, and brought the riders back to Meiringen, where the final 2 km (1.2 mi) of racing were flat, with straight roads.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
With heavy rain on the route, the peloton went through a testing portion of the course in the opening kilometres and enabled the group to split apart for a period before reforming several kilometres later. On the climb at the Chemin de Lorette, the breakaway formed with eighteen riders heading up the road ahead of the peloton. Despite such a large group going ahead, the peloton – being led by the Orica–GreenEDGE team – kept the lead gap in check at between three and three-and-a-half minutes.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
The group started to splinter as it headed towards Meiringen for the first time, while in the peloton, Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin–Sharp), who had been lying second place overall, crashed out of the race. He was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with "multiple contusions and abrasions", but no fractured bones. The nine leaders crossed the finish line in Meiringen ahead of the closing 37 km (23.0 mi) loop, and held a lead of around two minutes over the peloton.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
After Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Tom Boonen led over the fourth-category precursor to the Hasliberg, the lead group thinned yet further, ultimately leaving four riders at the head of proceedings – Blanco Pro Cycling rider Wilco Kelderman, Matti Breschel (Saxo–Tinkoff), Martin Elmiger of IAM Cycling, and Orica–GreenEDGE's Michael Albasini – but the remnants of the peloton were inside a minute of the group. BMC Racing Team's pace on the front with Tejay van Garderen and Mathias Frank had reduced the group to around fifteen riders, with yellow jersey wearer Cameron Meyer (Orica–GreenEDGE) among those dropped.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
The groups merged towards the top, where Breschel's team-mate Roman Kreuziger attacked clear, with Cannondale's Peter Sagan, Frank and Rui Costa of the Movistar Team bridged across. The four riders remained off the front until the finish, where Sagan out-sprinted the rest for his seventh career victory at the Tour de Suisse. Fourth place for Frank was good enough for him to claim the race leader's yellow jersey; his first race lead at his home Tour.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 4
The fourth stage of the race was one of a select few to be aimed towards the sprinters that took to the start at the commencement of the race in Quinto. Starting in Innertkirchen, the opening quarter of the stage was relatively flat prior to the first of the day's three categorised climbs, a second-category climb at Schwanden. A two-part descent with a long period of flat during it, the route returned to flatter ground in Heimberg. An undulating next 50 km (31.1 mi) followed, passing through the first intermediate sprint in Schüpfheim.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 4
The intermediate sprint was closely followed by the second-category Rengg ascent, which was seen as a pivotal part of the route, as its steepness was certain to test some sprinters and their endurance towards the finish. At 3.7 km (2.3 mi) long, the climb also had an average gradient of 6.2%. From the descent, it was almost flat all the way to Buochs, save for a fourth-category kicker – the Rengglochstrasse – near Kriens; the finish was also technical, with a testing 90-degree left-hand turn with just 200 metres (660 ft) remaining.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 4
The day's breakaway formed quickly after the start, with RadioShack–Leopard rider Jens Voigt, Robert Vrečer of Euskaltel–Euskadi and Lotto–Belisol's Olivier Kaisen going clear, and causing no threat to the peloton as a whole. The lead trio built up an advantage on the road of over four minutes, before the sprinters' teams set about reducing the advantage ahead of the finish. Kaisen was dropped on the Rengglochstrasse, with the main field within two minutes of the two remaining leaders on the road.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 4
Voigt and Vrečer had to momentarily stop for a closed level crossing just inside of the final 10 km (6.2 mi), as their lead was cut to around thirty seconds. Voigt attacked with 5 km (3.1 mi) remaining, but was still being closed down by the main field; the peloton caught Vrečer just over a kilometre later, while Voigt was brought back at 1.8 km (1.1 mi) to go. This ultimately set up the sprint finish, where FDJ's Arnaud Démare reached the final left-hand turn first, and managed to fend off a quick-finishing Matthew Goss (Orica–GreenEDGE) to take the stage win.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
The midway point of the race was marked with a stage heading from Buochs towards the outskirts of Lucerne, bypassing it around Horw and Malters. Having navigated their way around, the peloton continued directly north on their 178.4 km (110.9 mi) parcours, towards the Swiss-German border and a finishing circuit around Leuggern. Around two-and-a-half laps were completed of the 26.5 km (16.5 mi) circuit, with five categorised climbs (all fourth-category) and two intermediate sprints to be contested in Döttingen, prior to the finish in Leuggern itself.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
Of the five climbs, only two different hills were ascented; the Zurziberg was tackled three times on the route, while the Loorweg was climbed twice, but neither were expected to distance the sprinters, with average gradients of 5% apiece. Inside the final kilometre, the road kicked up with a 4% gradient, and was expected to favour power sprinters such as Cannondale's Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb of Argos–Shimano.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
After around 18 km (11.2 mi) of racing, the day's breakaway was formed; four riders went clear – Stijn Devolder of RadioShack–Leopard, Sojasun rider Cyril Lemoine, Sébastien Minard (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Serge Pauwels – and ultimately pulled clear to an advantage of almost three minutes at one point during the stage, and reached the finishing circuit with around two minutes of that gap still remaining. Behind, Giovanni Visconti, who had been lying in fourth place overall, exited the race with serious bruising and skin loss, after a crash.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
On the first full lap of the closing circuit, Saxo–Tinkoff rider Michael Mørkøv attacked on the Zurziberg, and managed to pull clear by around 30 seconds on the climb itself. Further round the circuit, several riders hit the tarmac, as the peloton was forced to narrowly pass parked cars at the side of the road; Lotto–Belisol rider Jens Debusschere suffered the worst of the injuries, and although he was able to finish the stage, he withdrew following it after he was diagnosed with a fractured ulna.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
Mørkøv's foray off the front of the peloton was not to last, and he was caught by the peloton, who crossed the finish line in Leuggern for the second time, just thirty seconds behind the four leaders. The leaders tried to up the pace on the Loorweg, but were caught even before they had reached the summit of the climb. BMC Racing Team led through the second intermediate sprint in protection of their race leader Mathias Frank, before IAM Cycling took up the front, ahead of the final ascent of the Zurziberg.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
Euskaltel–Euskadi's Jorge Azanza tried to go clear on the climb, but was caught prior to gaining a substantial advantage. This ultimately led to the final sprint; Astana had led into the final kilometre, with Cannondale chasing for Sagan, but with a lack of team-mates, he had to chase down the sprint first. Team Katusha's Alexander Kristoff moved ahead of him, and went on to take his first World Tour victory by around a bike length, ahead of Sagan and FDJ rider Arnaud Démare.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 6
The sixth stage of the race started in the previous day's finishing town of Leuggern and headed predominantly south-east away from the town. During the day's parcours of 187.9 km (116.8 mi), were two categorised climbs – both of which were categorised as third-category ascents – that both came in the second half of the stage; the first of which was the Schwändistrasse Fesisberg, a steep climb approaching 7% in gradient over a 3 km (1.9 mi) length. There were also two intermediate sprint points in the stage, held 17 km (10.6 mi) apart from one another.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 6
The first came at Küsnacht, after the race had made its way through Zurich, and continued alongside the banks of Lake Zurich. Having headed inland for the second climb – the Limberg, with gradients of up to 11% – the race moved back towards the Lake itself, passing through the second intermediate sprint at Oetwil am See; the race continued along the banks of the Lake until the finish in Meilen.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 6
The day's breakaway took some time in forming, with around 30 km (18.6 mi) having been completed before the move was instigated. Four riders went clear and were given the blessing by the peloton to go clear and establish an advantage. The group consisted of Team Sky rider Mathew Hayman, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Bert Grabsch, Alexandr Kolobnev (Team Katusha) and Grégory Rast of RadioShack–Leopard, with the best-placed rider among the quartet being Rast, who trailed overnight leader Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) by over 25 minutes in the general classification.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 6
With no threats to the classification, the peloton elected not to chase down the lead four, and instead let them battle it out for stage honours. Their maximum lead hit quarter of an hour, but was under eleven by the time the field had reached the finish. Rast launched an opportunist move at the flamme rouge and was not chased down, to take his first Tour de Suisse stage win. Hayman and Kolobnev came in 25 seconds, with Grabsch at 28 seconds. The field came in with Cannondale rider Peter Sagan leading home in fifth place, 10' 43" behind Rast, and in the process, extending his points classification lead.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
The queen stage of the 2013 Tour de Suisse, the seventh stage had a somewhat docile start to its 206 km (128.0 mi) itinerary. Except for a third-category climb of the Kerenzerberg Pass – with a maximum gradient of about 10% – after around 52 km (32.3 mi) of racing, the first half of the stage was predominantly flat before the mountainous second half of the route. After moving towards the Prättigau valley, the first-category Prättigaustrasse was the first to be tackled; a climb of two halves, with a steady start and then a 7% kick up to the summit.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
After a gradual descent from the climb, the next climb started almost immediately after, with the fourth-category Hauptstrasse, but this was the set-up for the final climb, the hors catégorie ascent of the Albula Pass, reaching over 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) above sea level. After passing through the two intermediate sprints at Alvaneu and Bergün respectively, the climb had irregular gradients throughout; shallow to start with, portions of the climb averaged 10%. The descent was not too technical, despite a series of hairpin bends, but the closing metres were flat in La Punt.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
Mini-attacks were key to the first hour and a half of racing, but the breakaway did not establish until almost 70 km (43.5 mi) were completed. Fourteen riders went clear of the field, with the best placed among them being Blanco Pro Cycling rider Luis León Sánchez, who trailed the overnight leader of the general classification, Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team), by almost six-and-a-half minutes.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
The group managed to build up a lead of around five-and-a-half minutes at its maximum, but was around a quarter of that by the time the leaders reached the final climb of the day, the Albula Pass. Sánchez and Argos–Shimano's Georg Preidler attacked at the foot of the climb, while out of the peloton came a separate solo attack by Team Sky's Joe Dombrowski. Dombrowski soon caught up to the remnants of the breakaway group, before moving past them with fresher legs. Dombrowski soon made his way up to the lead duo of Sánchez and Preidler on the climb, and also left them behind as he continued his pace up the climb, and was almost a minute clear of the peloton with around 20 km (12.4 mi) to race.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
Sánchez and Preidler were soon caught by the peloton, with the former's Blanco Pro Cycling team setting the pace on the front of the main field, as they started to close on Dombrowski. Towards the top of the climb, Bauke Mollema attacked, and was followed by FDJ's Thibaut Pinot, Tejay van Garderen of the BMC Racing Team and Rui Costa (Movistar Team), the defending race winner.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
Dan Martin (Garmin–Sharp) also joined the group for a period – making a sextet after Dombrowski had been caught near the top – but he was dropped along with Dombrowski towards the top of the climb, and on the descent. Pinot and Mollema were gapped by van Garderen and Costa, but Mollema was able to rejoin the lead pair, after an inflatable arch – which had been erected to signify two kilometres left to race – had collapsed onto the road. The trio remained together down to La Punt, where Costa prevailed in a close sprint, ahead of Mollema and van Garderen. Frank finished 22 seconds behind Costa to maintain the race lead, but by a reduced margin of 13 seconds.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
The penultimate stage started high in the mountains at Zernez; the stage start was almost 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) above sea level. The race steadily rose towards the first of two categorised climbs on the route, passing through the previous day's stage finish of La Punt, and also St. Moritz, before the ascent of the Julier Pass. The climb started at Silvaplana, and climbed almost 7 km (4.3 mi) to the summit, at an average gradient of around 6.6%. From there, a 60 km (37.3 mi) descent followed, taking the race back down to flatter grounds at Rhäzüns.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
After contesting the first intermediate sprint just outside Chur, the riders passed through the finish line in Bad Ragaz for the first time, prior to a 40 km (24.9 mi) closing loop. The second intermediate sprint came shortly after the line in Sargans, taking in several kilometres in Liechtenstein, prior to the third-category kicker at the St. Luzisteig Pass – with a maximum gradient of 12% – just 6 km (3.7 mi) from the finish. A fast descent followed, before the final 2 km (1.2 mi) were flat.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
Soon after the stage begun, the breakaway was formed; a group of four riders went clear, with the group consisting of Reto Hollenstein (IAM Cycling), Lampre–Merida's Manuele Mori, Maxime Bouet (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Robert Vrečer, who was looking to regain the lead of the mountains classification that he lost to Thibaut Pinot of FDJ on the previous stage. Vrečer led the group over the Julier Pass, where the quartet enjoyed their largest advantage of the day, at almost five-and-a-half minutes.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
The lead dropped as they progressed through the itinerary, and the advantage was around a minute with 26 km (16.2 mi) to go. Hollenstein attacked the rest of his companions at this point, and managed to remain clear until around 17 km (10.6 mi) to go, where the peloton moved past under the impetus of the Orica–GreenEDGE team, with assistance from Cannondale.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
With Orica–GreenEDGE on the front, their team leader Cameron Meyer suffered a puncture prior to the final climb; the resultant time gap was too much for him to bridge back to, and he ultimately lost almost half a minute to the peloton by stage's end. As the peloton made their way up the St. Luzisteig Pass, a high pace was causing fractures within the group, and with added assistance from Saxo–Tinkoff, the group was made up of thirty-four riders on the descent.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
BMC Racing Team's Philippe Gilbert tried to launch an attack not long after – the incumbent world champion looking to take his first victory in the rainbow jersey – but he was brought back by Sagan's team. It ultimately set up the sprint finish, with race leader Mathias Frank trying to lead Gilbert out; Saxo–Tinkoff's Daniele Bennati was first to launch, but Sagan sped past to take a comfortable victory, his second of the race. Frank finished within the group, to maintain his 13-second lead over Rui Costa (Movistar Team) into the final time trial.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
With less than a minute covering the top five, the final stage was the one to decide the general classification of the 2013 Tour de Suisse. The final time trial stage was set up unconventionally, with the 26.8 km (16.7 mi) itinerary split into two distinct sections. The opening 16.5 km (10.3 mi) from the start in Bad Ragaz was flat, heading towards the first intermediate time-check at Flums. From there on, the route headed upwards towards the finish at Flumserberg.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
The first element of the climb towards the second time-check averaged around 8.5% over a distance of 5.4 km (3.4 mi), with the final 4.9 km (3.0 mi) slightly steeper, averaging 9.5%. Such was the climb, it was expected that riders would start the stage on time-trial machinery, before stopping to change to a road bike prior to the climb. As was customary of time trial stages, cyclists set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Thus, Olivier Kaisen of Lotto–Belisol, who, in 151st place, trailed overall leader Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) by one hour, thirty minutes and forty seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
He was not first to finish however, as he was passed by Garmin–Sharp's Alex Rasmussen on the road; Rasmussen ultimately set the benchmark at just under 62 minutes, which was almost immediately beaten by Orica–GreenEDGE rider Sam Bewley, who moved the fastest time towards the hour mark. Bewley's team-mate Stuart O'Grady comfortably took the fastest time several minutes later, recording a time of 57' 54" for the course.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
Cyril Lemoine (Sojasun) took nearly a minute off O'Grady's time to take top spot for a period, before Team Katusha rider Alexander Kristoff repeated the feat on Lemoine's time, taking the fastest time with 55' 58". His time was not threatened for the best part of half an hour, before his team-mate Gatis Smukulis bettered the target time, recording a time of 55' 35" for the course, before Daryl Impey (Orica–GreenEDGE) was next to go fastest, ten seconds quicker than Smukulis.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
Andreas Klöden of RadioShack–Leopard was first under 55 minutes, with 54' 36", a time that was matched exactly fifteen minutes later by the Movistar Team's Jesús Herrada. Points classification winner Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and FDJ team-mates Jérémy Roy and Arnold Jeannesson all enjoyed spells at the top of the timesheets, as the best time continued to tumble.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
Euskaltel–Euskadi and Jon Izagirre were next, setting a time of 53' 23", before Andrey Amador (Movistar Team) moved the target below 53 minutes, with a time ultimately bettered by only four riders. Jean-Christophe Péraud (Ag2r–La Mondiale) bettered Amador's time by one second to take top spot, which held into the top ten riders. Astana's Tanel Kangert – the final stage winner in 2012, when that edition ended with a mountain stage – took the lead from Péraud with 52' 17", which was good enough for second.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
The pre-stage favourite, Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), faded on the course, losing almost a minute to Kangert. Blanco Pro Cycling's Bauke Mollema was only eight seconds off Kangert's time, while Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Roman Kreuziger of Saxo–Tinkoff lost more than half a minute. However, Kangert's time was to be beaten by the eventual race-winner, Rui Costa of the Movistar Team.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
He was the only rider to break 52 minutes with 51' 56", and as Frank rolled across the line almost two minutes down – to finish fifth overall – Costa became the first back-to-back winner since Andrew Hampsten in 1986 and 1987. Mollema was the biggest mover among the leaders, moving from fifth to second, ahead of Kreuziger.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Classification leadership table
In the 2013 Tour de Suisse, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, and the leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the 2013 Tour de Suisse, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race. There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a red jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs; there were twenty-one categorised climbs in the race, split into five distinctive categories.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Classification leadership table
The third jersey represented the points classification, marked by a white-and-red jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing highly in a stage. For stages 4, 5, 6 and 8, the win earned 25 points, second place earned 20 points, third 16, fourth 13, fifth 11, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 15th. For all other stages, the win earned 15 points, second place earned 12 points, third 10, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 12th. Points could also be earned at intermediate sprints for finishing in the top 3 at intermediate sprint points during each stage on a 6–3–1 scale.


2013 Tour de Suisse, Classification leadership table
The fourth jersey represented the sprints classification, marked by a blue jersey. In the sprints classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 3 at intermediate sprint points during each stage, with the exception of the individual time trial stages. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.


2013 Tour de Wallonie
The 2013 Tour de Wallonie was the 40th edition of the Tour de Wallonie cycle race and was held on 20–24 July 2013. The race started in Ans and finished in Thuin. The race was won by Greg Van Avermaet.


2013 Tour de Wallonie, Teams
Seventeen teams competed at the 2013 Tour de Wallonie. These included ten UCI ProTeams, five UCI Professional Continental Teams, and two UCI Continental Teams.


2013 Tour du Haut Var
The 2013 Tour du Haut Var was the 45th edition of the Tour du Haut Var cycle race and was held on 16–17 February 2013. The race started in Le Cannet-des-Maures and finished in Draguignan. The race was won by Arthur Vichot.


2013 Tour of Alberta
The 2013 Tour of Alberta is the inaugural edition of the Tour of Alberta stage race. The inaugural event is included on the UCI America Tour, with a UCI classification of 2.1. As such, the race was only open to teams on the UCI Pro Tour, UCI Professional Continental and UCI Continental circuits. The race takes place between September 3–8, 2013, as a six-day, six-stage race, traversing the province of Alberta. The race commences in Edmonton and finishes Calgary. The 2013 Tour of Alberta was one of seven UCI-ranked stage races in the North America in 2013.


2013 Tour of Alberta
Due to damages caused by the 2013 Alberta floods, various routes were changed.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Participating teams
In July, the Tour of Alberta announced a sixteen-team field, made up of six UCI ProTeams, two UCI Professional Continental Teams, and seven UCI Continental Teams, thus giving the race a total of fifteen-teams. UCI ProTeams Argos–Shimano and Belkin Pro Cycling, are based in the Netherlands, while its counterparts BMC Racing Team and Garmin–Sharp, are based in the United States. Cannondale and Orica–GreenEDGE, are based in the Italy and Australia, respectively; UCI Professional Continental Team Champion System is based in China, while its counterpart, UnitedHealthcare is based in United States. UCI Continental Teams Bissell, 5-hour Energy, Jelly Belly–Kenda, Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies, and Team Shartshop-Mountain Khakis are based in the United States. The remaining two teams are based in Canada.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Stages, Prologue
September 3, 2013 — Edmonton to Edmonton, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi)


2013 Tour of Alberta, Stages, Stage 1
September 4, 2013 — Strathcona County to Camrose, 158 kilometres (98 mi)


2013 Tour of Alberta, Stages, Stage 2
September 5, 2013 — Devon to Red Deer, 175 kilometres (109 mi)


2013 Tour of Alberta, Stages, Stage 3
September 6, 2013 — Strathmore to Drumheller, 169 kilometres (105 mi)


2013 Tour of Alberta, Stages, Stage 4
September 7, 2013 — Black Diamond to Foothills, 169 kilometres (105 mi)


2013 Tour of Alberta, Stages, Stage 5
September 8, 2013 — Okotoks to Calgary, 132 kilometres (82 mi)


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
In the 2013 Tour of Alberta, five jerseys are awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding the finishing times of the stages per cyclist, the leader receives a yellow jersey. This classification is considered the most important of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, and the winner of the general classification will be considered the winner of the event.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
Additionally, there is also a sprints classification, akin to what is called the points classification in other races, which awards a green jersey. Points are gathered at sprint line performances as well as finishing the stage in the top-fifteen places.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
There is also a mountains classification, which awards a polkadot jersey. In the mountains classification, points are won by reaching the top of a mountain before other cyclists. Each climb is categorized, either first, second, third, or fourth category, with more points available for the harder climbs.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
There is also a youth classification. This classification is calculated the same way as the general classification, but only young cyclists (under 25) are included. The leader of the young rider classification receives a white jersey.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
The red jersey is exclusive to Canadian riders in the race; the jersey is awarded to the Canadian with the best cumulative time.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
The last jersey is awarded to the most aggressive rider of a stage for him to wear on the next stage. It is generally awarded to a rider who attacks constantly or spends a lot of time in the breakaways. This jersey is blue.


2013 Tour of Alberta, Classification leadership
There is also a classification for teams. In this classification, the times of the best three cyclists per stage are added, and the team with the lowest time is the leader.


2013 Tour of Austria
The 2013 Tour of Austria (German: 2013 Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt) was the 65th edition of the Tour of Austria, an annual bicycle race. Departing from Innsbruck on June 30, concluded in Vienna on July 7. The 1115.2 km long stage race is part of the 2013 UCI Europe Tour, and is rated as a 2.HC event.


2013 Tour of Austria, Teams
18 teams were invited to participate in the tour: 9 UCI ProTeams, 4 UCI Professional Continental Teams and 5 UCI Continental Teams.


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 1
30 June 2013 – Innsbruck to Kühtai, 134.9 km (83.8 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 2
1 July 2013 – Innsbruck to Kitzbüheler Horn, 157.4 km (97.8 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 3
2 July 2013 – Heiligenblut to Matrei, 119.7 km (74.4 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 4
3 July 2013 – Matrei to Sankt Johann, 146.0 km (90.7 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 5
4 July 2013 – Sankt Johann to Sonntagberg, 228.3 km (141.9 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 6
5 July 2013 – Maria Taferl to Poysdorf, 182.0 km (113.1 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 7
6 July 2013 – Podersdorf am See to Podersdorf am See, 24.1 km (15.0 mi)


2013 Tour of Austria, Stages, Stage 8
7 July 2013 – Podersdorf am See to Vienna, 122.8 km (76.3 mi)


2013 Tour of Beijing
The 2013 Tour of Beijing was the third running of the Tour of Beijing stage race. It started on 11 October in Beijing's Shunyi District and ended on 15 October at the Bird’s Nest Piazza after five stages. It was the 29th and final race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season. Beñat Intxausti of the Movistar Team won the race after his mountain–top–finish victory on stage 4.


2013 Tour of Beijing, Participating teams
As the Tour of Beijing is a UCI World Tour event, all nineteen UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. In addition the race organisers awarded a wildcard place to the Champion System team.


2013 Tour of Belgium
The 2013 Tour of Belgium was the 83rd edition of the Tour of Belgium cycling stage race. It took place from 22 May to 26 May 2013 in Belgium. The race was a part of the UCI Europe Tour.


2013 Tour of Belgium, Teams
Twenty teams were invited to the 2013 Tour of Belgium: 9 UCI World Tour Teams, 6 UCI Professional Continental Teams and 5 UCI Continental Teams.


2013 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 1
22 May 2013 – Lochristi to Knokke-Heist, 194.2 km (120.7 mi)


2013 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 2
23 May 2013 – Knokke-Heist to Ninove, 181 km (112 mi)


2013 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 3
24 May 2013 – Beveren to Beveren, 15 km (9.3 mi)


2013 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 4
25 May 2013 – Eau d'Heure lakes to Eau d'Heure lakes, 164.3 km (102.1 mi)


2013 Tour of Belgium, Stages, Stage 5
26 May 2013 – Banneux to Banneux, 175.6 km (109.1 mi)


2013 Tour of Britain
The 2013 Tour of Britain was the tenth running of the current Tour of Britain and the 74th British tour in total. The race consisted of eight stages, starting on 15 September in Peebles, and finishing on 22 September in London. The race was part of the 2013 UCI Europe Tour, and was categorised by the UCI as a 2.1 category race.


2013 Tour of Britain
Sir Bradley Wiggins won the race after gaining a lead in the stage 3 time trial.


2013 Tour of Britain, Teams
19 teams were invited to participate in the tour: 5 UCI ProTeams, 6 UCI Professional Continental Teams, 7 UCI Continental Teams and one national team.


2013 Tour of Britain, Stages
There were 8 stages in the 2013 race covering a total of 1,159.3 kilometres (720 mi). Notable stages were Stage 6, which featured the race's first ever summit finish, and Stage 3, an individual time trial, something absent in the previous edition.


2013 Tour of California
The 2013 Amgen Tour of California was the eighth running of the Tour of California cycling stage race. It was held from May 12–19, and was rated as a 2.HC event on the UCI America Tour. It began in Escondido and finished in Santa Rosa.


2013 Tour of California
It was won by the American Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), the first success in the general classification of a stage race in the career of the then 24-year-old rider. The sprints jersey was handed to Slovak Peter Sagan (Cannondale), who won it for the fourth time in four consecutive presences at the Tour. Carter Jones (Bissell) prevailed in the mountains classification thanks to his participation in numerous breakaways, and Lawson Craddock of Bontrager Cycling Team earned the youth classification jersey at 21 years of age.


2013 Tour of California, Prior to the race
The winner of the 2012 race, Robert Gesink, did not participate in this edition as he was riding the Giro d'Italia. For this edition, the UCI elected to reintroduce blood testing based on the biological passport, as USADA would also take care of pre-race testing, but no cooperation was established between the two agencies. The favorites for the overall classification have been deemed to be Tejay van Garderen, Haimar Zubeldia, Cameron Meyer, Michael Rogers (who won the 2010 edition and was making a comeback to the race), Thomas De Gendt and Francisco Mancebo, among others. Another rider to watch was David Zabriskie, who finished second in the general classification of the race on four occasions including the latest edition, without ever winning the top honors.


2013 Tour of California, Prior to the race
Riders looking for stage wins in sprints included Slovak Peter Sagan (who held the record for stage wins in the Tour at eight going into the event), Belgian Gianni Meersman and Dutch Boy Van Poppel. Also in contention for stage honors were Aussie Michael Matthews, American Tyler Farrar and Belgian Philippe Gilbert. 2010 Tour de France winner Andy Schleck was also present.


2013 Tour of California, Participating teams
Sixteen teams participated in the 2013 Tour of California, including eight UCI World Tour teams, three UCI Professional Continental teams, and five UCI Continental teams. They were:


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
The course was mountainous and included as a major obstacle the Category 1 Palomar Mountain climb about halfway through the stage, which took the riders to an altitude of about 5,200 ft (1,600 m). Other categorized difficulties were the Mesa Grande (cat. 4) situated before the latter climb and the Cole Grade (cat. 3), whose summit was situated 20 mi (32 km) from the finish. The only intermediate sprint was disputed in Ramona after 20 mi (32 km) of racing and before the difficulties of the day.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
One rider missed the start of the first stage, Ben King (RadioShack–Leopard) had to withdraw due to a hand injury suffered while training two days prior. The heat proved to be a factor in this stage, as it was reported temperatures reached over 100 °F (38 °C). Early in the race, a breakaway of four riders formed: Zak Dempster (NetApp–Endura), Marsh Cooper (Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies), James Stemper (5-hour Energy), and Carter Jones (Bissell). The quartet built a maximum lead of ten minutes, Jones grabbed the intermediate sprint points, and Dempster was first atop the Mesa Grande (cat. 4).


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
The latter was dropped on the slopes of Palomar Mountain, a ten mile long challenge featuring a 4,5% average slope, which Jones crested first. The leading group, now reduced to a trio, cooperated on the twisting descent and on the flatter sections afterward, until they tackled the last categorized difficulty, the Cole Grade. The Canadian Marsh Cooper was unable to follow the pace on the short but steep climb, as Stemper and Jones powered away. The duet held a sizable lead, and it looked like they might hold the peloton at bay but BMC Racing Team, Cannondale, Saxo–Tinkoff and Vacansoleil–DCM took matters into their own hands and started to reel the escape in gradually.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
Peter Sagan (Cannondale) was dropped on the Cole Grade, but some teammates folded back to help him reintegrate the main group, which he did. In the run-in to Escondido, world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) was distanced, and Luis Amaran of Jamis–Hagens Berman took a nasty spill, but was able to remount and finish the stage. Jones and Stemper were finally caught with 5 km (3.1 mi) to go. As the two shook hands to congratulate each other for the big effort, Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil–DCM) jumped out of the peloton, and was joined by Francisco Mancebo (5-hour Energy).


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 1
Sagan then had problems with his rear derailleur and was soon relegated to the back of the peloton, where he sorted out the problem without leaving the saddle. The Mancebo-Westra duo cooperated well, taking advantage of the sprinters' teams confusion, and managed to resist. Westra outsprinted Mancebo to take Vacansoleil–DCM's second win of the year and the 10 seconds bonification. Sagan won the sprint of the bunch, coming in six seconds after the escapees. Thanks to their long escape, Jones earned the mountains classification jersey while his fellow escapee Stemper won the "Most Courageous" rider jersey.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
Stage 2 was another very hilly affair with a sprint counting toward the points classification jersey in Hemet after a little more than 40 mi (64 km), before the climbing began. Once again the highest point of the course was situated midway through the race atop the Category 1 Mountain Center climb, which translated to a 1,000 m (3,300 ft) gain in altitude. Another intermediate sprint was located at the foot of the descent, then the road went flat until the final ascent to the finish in the vicinity of Palm Springs, which was also a Category 1 affair.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
The heat was once again a major factor in the race, as the temperatures reached 42 °C (108 °F) and nearly 120 degrees on the pavement. Afterwards, riders tweeted pictures of blisters from burns on their bodies from lying on the black pavement after the stage. The riders kept themselves cool with ice packs taken from the team cars, tucking them in their jerseys as they were racing through the desert landscape. The day's early breakaway included Bissell's Pat McCarty, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Jamis–Hagens Berman), Scott Zwizanski (Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step).


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
McCarty was the better placed rider in the overall classification at only 16 seconds, which hindered the break's chances greatly. Nevertheless, they held a maximum lead of twelve minutes over the bunch. McCarty took the first intermediate sprint points. The gap started melting when they crested Mountain Center as Jacques-Maynes took the maximum King of the Mountains points. They negotiated the twisting descent to Palm Springs, passing through the last intermediate sprint without contesting it (Zwizanski happened to be at the front). Back in the peloton, race leader Lieuwe Westra suffered a flat tire, but was able to negotiate his way back to the main field by weaving through the team cars.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
With 25 km (16 mi) to cover and a gap of three minutes, disagreement started to appear in the lead group as Zwizanski placed an acceleration, followed by a dig from Jacques-Maynes, who spent two kilometers alone in front before the quartet got back together. At the foot of the final climb with 6 km (3.7 mi) to the finish, the escapees were finally caught. The ascent was officially 6.4 km (4.0 mi) long at an average gradient of 10%. The peloton started breaking rapidly thanks to the very steep gradient.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 2
Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil–DCM) was soon distanced, and lost more than 9 minutes and the yellow jersey, finishing near pre-race favorites, Andy Schleck (RadioShack–Leopard) and David Zabriskie (Garmin–Sharp). Up the road, Philip Deignan of UnitedHealthcare attacked the leading group of five riders and hung in front for 2 km (1.2 mi), but was swept back by Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Janier Acevedo (Jamis–Hagens Berman), who went under the flamme rouge in the lead. Acevedo put a last acceleration in and distanced Van Garderen, earning the biggest victory of his career so far and taking the leader's jersey. For his efforts in the break, Chavanel earned the "Most Courageous" rider award.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
Stage 3 was composed of numerous Category 4 climbs as opposed to the two prior stages which included one or two major difficulties. The first one was situated on Munz Ranch road, the following two occurred on Lake Hughes Road, after which two intermediate sprints were disputed; one near Lake Hughes and another one in the Leona Valley. The last categorized bump was on the Bouquet Canyon Road, 22 mi (35 km) from the finish line which was reached via mostly downhill roads in Santa Clarita.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
The temperatures were a lot more favorable to the riders on Stage 3. 41-year-old Jens Voigt (RadioShack–Leopard) attacked right as the flag was dropped and a 23 men breakaway formed. The large group stayed free for 30 kilometres (19 mi) until the first categorized climb, as they were reeled back in by the leader's team, Jamis–Hagens Berman. Carter Jones (Bissell) took the KOM points, securing the mountains classification jersey for another day.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
At the same moment, another attempt at forming an escape succeeded: Andy Schleck (RadioShack–Leopard), Gavin Mannion (Bontrager Cycling Team), Chad Beyer (Champion System) and points classification leader Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil–DCM) steered clear of the bunch. The gap maximized at 4:45, Beyer took the 2 following King Of the Mountains contests, and the quartet did not contest the intermediate sprints, leaving the points to Westra, who wanted to comfort his lead for the Green Jersey.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
Schleck took maximum points on the last climb of the day, and the peloton started chasing harder, led by Garmin–Sharp, Cannondale and Omega Pharma–Quick-Step. Mannion sat up during the descent to reintegrate the main field, and with 20 kilometres (12 mi) to cover and a slight gap of 45 seconds, Schleck and Westra decided to call it quit and chat before the inevitable junction. Beyer had other ideas, soldiered onward and was caught shortly. This last effort netted him the "Most Courageous" rider jersey.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
As the quasi-totality of the remaining peloton in the Tour came charging in Santa Clarita, the lead-out trains tried to sort themselves out. The only attack in the final came in the form of Markel Irizar (RadioShack–Leopard), who rolled the dice with 6 km (3.7 mi) to go, but the maneuver failed as he spent less than a minute at the front.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 3
In the final dash for the line, no lead-out trains stood out and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) seemed distanced until his lead-out man Guillaume Boivin found him and pulled, and at the same time Baden Cooke was leading out Michael Matthews for Orica–GreenEDGE. As the sprint was unleashed, Sagan was still behind the first row, but managed to find an opening on the right side of the road to beat Matthews by half-a-wheel. This was the ninth victory at the Tour of California for Sagan, who improved his own record.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
The stage started with a very long 35 mi (56 km) downhill false-flat at the bottom of which an intermediate sprint was disputed in Santa Paula. Immediately after the sprint, the road kicked up to the Category 4 Dennison Grade. The latter climb was featured at the midway point of the stage once again. Another intermediate sprint was scheduled on the way down, followed by a Category 3 difficulty  situated about 20 mi (32 km) from the line. Then the route was mainly flat or downhill.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
A notable non-starter for the fourth stage was Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team), who packed his bags since his wife was delivering their baby a little sooner than expected. A flurry of attacks punctuated the first 15 km (9.3 mi) until a move of 5 Americans and a Canadian formed, Nathan Brown (Bontrager Cycling Team), Frank Pipp (Bissell), the previous day's "Most Courageous" rider Chad Beyer (Champion System), James Stemper (5-hour Energy), Chris Baldwin (Bissell) and Canadian Marsh Cooper (Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies).


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
Baldwin was the better placed rider in the overall, 3:19 down on race leader Janier Acevedo (Team Jamis), and became the virtual leader at one point as the gap culminated to 3:30. Stemper won the first intermediate sprint in Santa Paula, as Baldwin was first to cross the line of the Category 4 Dennison Grade and at the intermediate sprint after the descent in Ojai. The 21-year-old Brown was aggressive on the last climb of the day, breaking away to take maximum points, and the group reformed on the descent.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
A small bump up during the descent shed Pipp off the group, as the breakaway held an advantage of a minute with 30 km (19 mi) to cover. Some attacks occurred in the breakaway, the most significant being led by Brown, who sped away solo with 18 km (11 mi) as the break was about to be caught, and increased his lead to 40 seconds until a dig initiated by Jens Voigt (RadioShack–Leopard) brought the main field together at the 10 km (6.2 mi) to go banner.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
Brown gained the privilege to wear the "Most Courageous" rider jersey on the next stage for this last-ditch effort. Another significant attack happened with 2 km (1.2 mi) to race as the bunch negotiated a weirdly shaped roundabout, with Matt Brammeier (Champion System) taking the least traveled path and holding on until he got caught at the flamme rouge. As the sprint unfolded, Tyler Farrar was well positioned at the front, and powered away with Ken Hanson (Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies) coming in second.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 4
This was Farrar's first win since the USA Pro Cycling Challenge last summer, and the second win of the day for Garmin–Sharp, as Ramūnas Navardauskas won the Giro d'Italia's stage 11 hours earlier. There were no changes in the overall classification, but the Green jersey changed hands and went to Peter Sagan, who finished fifth.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
Stage 5 counted only one categorized climb, which was disputed at the beginning of the race, the San Marcos Pass which was graded as a Category 2 and whose summit was situated at the 20 mi (32 km) mark. From that point, the terrain was undulating or flat and passed through 3 intermediate sprints situated in Orcutt, Guadalupe and then Arroyo Grande.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
The stage was deemed to be a sprinters' affair due to the fairly flat terrain after the Category 2 San Marcos Pass, and the early breakaway detached themselves before the difficulty: Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil–DCM), Kai Chun Feng (Champion System) and mountains classification leader Carter Jones (Bissell). Jones added valuable points to his tally as he crested the San Marcos Pass in first position. The three escapees enjoyed a maximum freedom of 8:30 before the bunch decided it was enough and started working.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
With 55 kilometres (34 mi) to cover and with the break still enjoying an advantage of two minutes, the crosswinds were battering the peloton in the open fields and RadioShack–Leopard, notably Jens Voigt, put a dig at the front that splintered the field in numerous groups. Soon, Saxo–Tinkoff, BMC Racing Team and Orica–GreenEDGE contributed to help the first echelon take large. The early break was caught then quickly shed off the back as Tejay van Garderen, Michael Rogers Cameron Meyer and Matthew Busche were in the lead group, all of them well-placed general classification contenders.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
Peter Sagan was also in the escape, isolated as he had no teammates with him. The group clawed its way to a steady growth of their advantage. Caught in the main group at the back were race leader Janier Acevedo (Jamis–Hagens Berman), third placed Philip Deignan (UnitedHealthcare), Chad Haga (seventh, Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Lawson Craddock (ninth, Bontrager Cycling Team).


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
The chase was mostly led by UnitedHealthcare while Jamis–Hagens Berman also chipped in. As the lead group continued to gain time, Busche told his teammate Voigt "you look pretty good, why don't you go for the stage?". Voigt did exactly that and with 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to race until the finish line he launched an attack that would not be nullified. He crossed the line in Avila Beach solo, registering his first victory of the year.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 5
The large group of escapees he was part of came in 6 seconds later, and the whole peloton a minute and seven seconds in arrears. The general classification was reshuffled, with Van Garderen taking the lead from Acevedo and Michael Rogers going from fifth to second. 41-year-old veteran Voigt said in his typical good humored fashion when interviewed after his victory: "I just did the same move I've been doing since the ice age, and I couldn't believe they let me go. Once I get 20 seconds, I'm gone. I looked back and said, 'I can't believe they're giving me 20 seconds, don't they know?'


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
The individual time trial stage started with a small climb coming 1 mi (1.6 km) after the starting ramp, then became mostly flat until the final 1.6 mi (2.6 km). From that point it kicked up for an elevation gain of almost 1,000 ft (300 m), featuring some sections at a gradient of 10%.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
A notable rider could not start the stage, David Zabriskie (Garmin–Sharp) crashed during a reconnaissance ride and had to abandon. A choice faced the riders as they devised their strategy for the time trial: should they lose time at the foot of the final climb to switch to a normal road bike or power through with their aerodynamic machine not suited for steep climbing? The choices differed, as Michael Rogers opted for a change, while Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) continued on the TT bike.


2013 Tour of California, Stages, Stage 6
Kristijan Koren (Cannondale) was the first rider to complete the course under the 51 minutes bar, but then Rohan Dennis (Garmin–Sharp) exploded that time with a chrono of 49 minutes 20 seconds. Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) then scored an honorable time, a little more than a minute in arrears of Dennis. Overall contenders who lost time on the last day's echelon, Lawson Craddock (Bontrager Cycling Team), Chad Haga (Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies), Philip Deignan (UnitedHealthcare) and Francisco Mancebo (5-hour Energy) all performed well enough to keep their top ten overall placings.