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July 20, 2013

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Costa at the double with mountainous win

RUI Costa won the mountainous 19th stage of the Tour de France with a solo breakaway on the final climb, while Chris Froome stayed in yellow as expected attacks never materialized yesterday.

Costa secured his second stage win of the race after catching Frenchman Pierre Roland about a quarter of the way up the fourth and final major ascent of Col de la Croix Fry.

German veteran Andreas Kloeden was second, 46 seconds behind, and Belgian Jan Bakelants was 1:44 back in third.

Froome and his main Tour rival Alberto Contador were still some distance behind Portugal's Costa when he clinched his third career Tour stage win.

The 204.5-kilometers trek featured two HC climbs and two Category 1 ascents between Bourg-d'Oisans and Le Grand-Bornand in the snow-capped peaks of the Alps.

Contador was tipped to attack Froome in the long downhill finish, but perhaps because of the rainy conditions, the attack never came.

Froome and Contador rolled over the line together, several minutes behind Costa, and Froome maintained his lead of 5:11 over the Spaniard. He is two days away from becoming the second British rider to win the race after Bradley Wiggins last year.

Froome was not attacked up the first of the two big climbs to Col du Glandon - one of the day's two HC ascents. They are known as HC, Hors Categorie, because they are considered so tough they are beyond classification.




 

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