Chris Froome retained his overall lead of the Tour de France as Greg van Avermaet held off Peter Sagan in an uphill sprint finish to win stage 13.
Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) accelerated close to the bottom of a steep, 570m climb to the line in Rodez and although Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) managed to catch up, he didn’t have enough energy left to go past in the final 50m.
It was the first Tour stage win of Van Avermaet’s career, but Sagan was left to contemplate a fourth second place of this year’s race and 15th in total at the Tour.
Froome (Team Sky) crossed the line alongside all of his rivals for overall victory in sixth to consolidate his 2min 52sec lead over second-placed Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) in the general classification.
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) stays 3min 9sec down in third, while Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) remains 4min 3sec adrift in fifth and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) 4min 4sec back in sixth.
Van Avermaet said: "It was really close. I went really early because in Le Havre [on stage six] I was waiting too long I think. I tried to go almost from the bottom. The last 100m kept going on forever. I saw there was somebody in my wheel, so I just kept on sprinting and hoping that he wouldn't come over."
Stage 13 started in Muret in the Pyrenees and took the riders on a transitional 198.5km route played out on scorching conditions reaching 36C.
A six-man breakaway formed and three of them – Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar) – carried a slender advantage into the final 1km.
Kelderman attacked at the bottom of the decisive climb, which averaged 9.6 per cent in gradient, but he was unable to hold off counter-attackers out of the peloton.
Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) made a strong surge, but it was Van Avermaet who crested the steep ramp first, with Sagan 10m behind.
The Slovakian closed the gap over the next 50m and looked certain to triumph, but Van Avermaet somehow kept up his momentum to clinch a hard-fought victory.
The Tour continues on Saturday with a rolling 178.5km 14th stage from Rodez to Mende. Follow it with our live blog from 1pm BST and find out more about the route in our race guide.
Stage 13
1 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, 4:43:42
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, same time
3 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +3secs
4 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, +7
5 Paul Martens (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st
6 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, st
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, st
8 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
9 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, st
10 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, st
Selected others
12 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, st
14 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, st
General classification
1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 51:34:21
2 Tejay van Garderen (US) BMC Racing, +2:52
3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +3:09
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +3:58
5 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +4:03
6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +4:04
7 Robert Gesink (Net) LottoNL-Jumbo, +5:32
8 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +7:32
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +7:47
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing, +8:02