Philipsen wins Stage 13 of Tour de France in sprint finish and Pogacar keeps overall lead

PAU, France (AP) - Jasper Philipsen won the 13th stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish and two-time champion Tadej Pogacar kept the yellow jersey on Friday.

Several riders fell in a crash a few hundred meters from the line but Pogacar, who was just ahead, avoided it.

Philipsen held off Belgian countryman Wout van Aert and German rider Pascal Ackermann after 3 1/2 hours to clinch his second stage win this month.

The flat trek gave sprinters valuable points in the green jersey contest, taking the peloton on a 165-kilometer (103-mile) route from Agen to the southwestern city of Pau on the Pyrenees mountains' northern edge.

Biniam Girmay of Eritrea, who has won three stages so far, placed fourth and kept the green jersey.

Primoz Roglic, the 2020 runner-up to his Slovenian countryman Pogacar, withdrew ahead of the stage a day after a crash.

Saturday’s 14th stage starts from Pau and hits the mountains, where two huge climbs await on a 152-kilometer (99-mile) slog to Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet. ___

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