Thor Hushovd, who needed the assistance of the commissaires to snatch the green jersey from Mark Cavendish's grasp in the 2009 Tour de France, could be on the way to inflicting further disappointment. A perfectly judged victory in Friday's 152km ride from Pau to Lourdes gave the 33-year-old Norwegian his first stage win this year, bringing him closer to the Manx sprinter at the top of the points standings.
He denies that it is on his agenda. "I've been saying that for weeks," he said. "I wanted to win a stage this year and wear the yellow jersey. I wore it for seven days last week, and that's better than winning the green jersey." Most of his duties have been in support of other riders in the Garmin-Carvélo team. History, however, suggests that no one represents a greater threat.
Before taking the green jersey two years ago, when Cavendish was controversially deprived of a stage win in Besançon, Hushovd had won it for the first time in 2005. He knows what it takes, and the greater variety of his weaponry was perfectly illustrated by yesterday's win in a stage that included the hors-catégorie Col d'Aubisque and concluded with the successful pursuit of a lone escapee.
Pipped for 11th place in the intermediate sprint behind the 10 riders who comprised the early break, Cavendish gestured in exasperation at the two Movistar riders who had outmanoeuvred him. One of them, José Joaquín Rojas, currently lies second in the green jersey standings; he picked up an extra point, thereby denying it to the HTC-Highroad leader.
Hushovd also had the pleasure of winning a stage in the rainbow-striped white jersey of the world road race champion. The holder is supposed to spend the rest of the year flourishing the colours, rather than hiding them in the peloton. When Jérémy Roy, the winner of Thursday's prize for winning the climb of the Tourmalet, made a solo attack and crossed the Aubisque in lonely majesty, Hushovd was lying third and two minutes down, but his long chase animated the final 40km and ended in success when both he and David Moncoutié passed Roy on the approach to the centre of Lourdes.
Since the Aubisque came in the middle of the stage, followed by a flat run-in, the 13th stage was never going to interest the men fighting over the general classification. Andreas Klöden of RadioShack and Lars Boom of Rabobank abandoned the race as a result of previous injuries, but the top guns were content to spend the day in recuperative obscurity while Thomas Voeckler, wearing the yellow jersey for the fourth day in a row, remained near the front of the peloton.
Voeckler seems likely to surrender the overall lead on Saturday,when the race heads back into the Hautes-Pyrénées for a 168km stage starting at Saint-Gaudens, incorporating the first-category Col de la Core and Col d'Agnès. A finish at the 1,780m summit of the hors-catégorie Plateau de Beille invites a dramatic and possible race-defining move from one of the fancied runners.
