Warren Barguil takes Tour de France stage on Bastille Day

Warren Barguil found racing in the Pyrenees to be much to his liking as he won Friday’s Stage 13 of the Tour de France.

The 63-mile stage from Saint-Girons to Foix is the shortest of the race — other than time trials — and the Frenchman outlasted three other cyclists to win on Bastille Day.

Barguil’s 2 1/2-hour ride was frantic at the finish as he held off Colombian’s Nairo Quintana with Spainiards Alberto Contador and Mikel Landa finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Fabio Aru of Italy finished one minute, 48 seconds behind the leaders but retained the yellow jersey. Aru holds a six-second lead over Britain’s Chris Froome with France’s Romain Barget lurking 25 seconds off the pace.

“I know what counts is to get to the end of each evening feeling good and in control of the race,” Aru said.

Meanwhile, Barguil was ecstatic over his performance in the stage in which he fell a little bit off the pace at one point before finishing strong.

Besides, outdueling a two-time Tour de France winner is good for confidence.

“I was really on top of it. Eight-hundred meters from the end, I felt like I was on top of it,” Barguil said. “Alberto Contador went on the attack. I went on the outside of him and then back in and I knew that I would be the fastest.

“Contador was my idol when I was younger. I never would have believed that I could do this a few years ago.”

In terms of the battle for the yellow jersey, Froome said there was less pressure on his Team Sky team during the shorter race.

“Today feels a lot better and we played a good strategic game with our team,” Froome said. “It was quite a great feeling to have to go out there and race for the win today rather than racing defensively and having that pressure of defending the yellow jersey. It felt quite nice having the shoe on the other foot.”