Germany’s Andre Greipel claimed his third victory of this year’s Tour de France as Bradley Wiggins of Britain held on to the yellow jersey at the end of the 13th stage.

Greipel, who rides for Lotto, finished just ahead of Slovakian sprint rival Peter Sagan (Liquigas) in a tight finish in which Wiggins had tried to set up Sky teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Norwegian Boasson Hagen could only finish third on the 217 km stage which began in Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux. Wiggins stayed out of danger during the windy ride into Cap d’Agde to retain his 2min 05sec lead over teammate Chris Froome.

Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) is still third at 2:23 while Australia’s defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) is fourth at 3:19.

Greipel won stages four and five in this year’s race and now has four in total, having claimed his maiden Tour stage in 2011.

His main sprint rival Mark Cavendish (Sky) was one of a large bunch of riders left behind on the slopes of the Mont Saint Clair, whose summit was just over 20 km from the finish line.

 

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