Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan won stage 13 of the Tour de France after a solo breakaway near the end of the 122-mile ride. Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank kept the race-leading yellow jersey.
Schleck retains a 31-second advantage over defending champion Alberto Contador of the Astana team as the riders head for the Pyrenees mountains tomorrow. Mark Cavendish of Team HTC- Columbia came second in a sprint finish.
Vinokourov, who was banned for a year for blood doping in 2007, was in front for much of the race and the peloton was unable to catch him in the final stages of a mainly flat ride from Rodez to Revel.
“My ambition on the Tour was to win a stage,” the Astana rider said in a televised interview. “It didn’t happen yesterday but it did today. For me and my family, it’s exceptional.”
Cavendish of the U.K. emerged from a pack of riders behind Vinokourov to maintain his challenge for the sprinters’ green jersey, currently held by Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi.
Earlier, seven-time champion Lance Armstrong crashed before reaching the start line. Armstrong fell on the 4-mile ride to the start before getting back on his bike and rejoining the other 176 riders still in the race, letour.com said.
Armstrong is 36th in the overall standings, more than 25 minutes behind race leader Schleck after finishing in a group 4 minutes and 35 seconds back in today’s stage.
