Back in the Tour de France breakaway for the second time in four days, having read the moves right all day and stayed in contention, a single, late miscalculation cost North American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) a crack at the victory on Friday.
One of six riders who came into the final hour of racing on Friday's transition stage to Saint-Étienne with a chance of winning, the Tour de France rookie, finally fifth, could not hide his disappointment at the line after missing out.
Yet even if the knock-on effect was that he would not be in the break on Saturday, the 23-year-old said he promised he would be back in the action in the Pyrenees.
Compounding Jorgenson's frustration not just failing to make the top three at the finish, after Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) ambushed the remainder of the six-rider break with some 10 kilometres to go, was that he had read the early part of the day perfectly. And despite his later misgivings about the 'break from the break', as Movistar director Txente Garcia Acosta had famously dubbed it, not being able to stick 'the break from the break' duly did.
"It all started on a downhill near the start, and usually breaks don't go there until the downhill ends so I stayed near the front and it went on a little kicker of a climb," Jorgenson recounted about how the move had started.
"I was following [fellow breakaway] Filippo Ganna and he had ridiculous power. The break just went on legs, it was like whoever could stay on the wheel could make the break and whoever couldn't, wouldn't make it.
"Then we were kept super close the whole day, at two minutes, we had a headwind, it didn't feel right. I didn't think we'd make it until 15 kilometres to go."
But then came the error. As Jorgenson recounted, his mistake was to be shadowing Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), as he was, he thought, the strongest. But rather than Ganna bluffing about how he was on the limit, in fact, the Italian was telling the truth. By the time Jorgenson realised his error, he was stuck in a group with Ganna and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and as he put it "they were the most tired of everyone in the break."
"I thought Küng and Ganna would attack because they were the biggest motors, so I was watching them and when Pedersen went, I saw Stefan respond and try to get on his wheel but we just didn't make it across."
With the race ebbing away from him and as the gap opened, Jorgenson began hoping that the move ahead would implode. But it didn't.
"I thought they would maybe sit up, and I'd make it back in the end. But they were riding with Pedersen, I don't know why they were working with him, they didn't come back and that was that."
Jorgenson's frustration at losing out was doubled by the fact that Saturday's stage to Mende looks almost certain to end in a breakaway victory. But it'll take time for him to regain his strength and recoup from his losses. As he put it, "when you have the legs and form to make it in the break, it's disappointing that you don't even make onto the [stage] podium."
Next up though, is how to recoup his losses and Jorgenson, just minutes after the defeat of stage 13, was looking how to do better further down the line.
"I'm sure there's more to come, I need to recover from this one, that's why it's so disappointing when you really empty the tank. You can't be in the break again soon and tomorrow would have been a good day for it. So I'll hopefully recover and be in the breaks in the Pyrenees."
