"Riders are tired, the race is hot. Today was the kind of day when you are glad to watch the sprinters' teams work."

Those were the words of Astana's Andrei Grivko after stage thirteen at the Tour de France. Grivko and the rest of the peloton raced in 40-degree heat across the brown, rolling countryside away from Toulouse on Friday, with a short sharp sprint finish in front of thousands of sweltering fans.

With no mountains to favor the climbers, sprinters came to the front and created breakaways in the wind, then chased into Rodez to a mass finish and a victory for Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet. Astana Pro Team rider Vincenzo Nibali finished in the same time as Van Avermaet and remained ninth overall in General Classification with eight stages remaining.

Grivko finished a long day of carrying water bottles and food back from the team cars to his teammates, and spent a hard 20 minutes in the second half of the race to bring Nibali back into the main peloton after two flat tires for the 2014 Tour de France champion.

Saturday's stage fourteen is mostly flat but finishes with a steep slimb up the Côte de la Croix Neuve into Mende. Hot weather is expected to remain, but rain and summer thunderstorms in the afternoon could bring about an unexpected finish.