2013 Tour de France Mountains classification

The 2013 Tour de France King of the Mountains is Nairo Quintana.

[1] That means the 2013 Tour de France included 28 mountain climbs or altitude finishes ranked Category-two, Category-one or Hors catégorie compared to 25 in 2012, 23 in 2011 and 25 in 2010.

[2] Notable climbs in this year's tour include Col de Pailheres, Col de la Madeleine, Annecy-Semnoz, Mont Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez (twice).

The following table shows the mountains classification's top six riders' results on the 15 most difficult climbs of the 2013 Tour de France.

* denotes climbs were also stage finishes and therefore points awarded were doubled.

In total, Quintana won 97% of his points on Hors Category climbs, Chris Froome 79%, Rodriguez 92%, Riblon 88% and Nieve 86%, compared to Rolland who only won 48% of his points on HC climbs.

In the first stage, only one climb was categorized: the Cote de Sotta, of fourth category.

Juan José Lobato was awarded the polka dot jersey after the stage.

Juan José Lobato started the stage wearing the polka dot jersey.

Blel Kadri and Pierre Rolland finished the stage tied on 5 points in the mountain classification.

But, the polka dot jersey was awarded to Pierre Rolland because he had the most first-place finishes on the hardest climbs.

[11] Stage 3 started with Pierre Rolland in the polka dot jersey.

Pierre Rolland increased his overall lead in the King of the Mountains classification.

In addition to winning 4 points and moving up to 4th place in the mountains classification, Thomas De Gendt won the combativity award for the stage.

Pierre Rolland maintained a 5-point lead in the mountains classification and kept the polka dot jersey.

This was Kanstantsin Sivtsov's first point in the mountains classification, so the top of the leader-board stayed the same with Pierre Rolland retaining the polka dot jersey.

The polka dot jersey of Blel Kadri was dropped by the peloton early on the climb to the Col de Pailheres.

Nairo Quintana attacked the peloton to chase down and pass breakaway rider Christophe Riblon and win the first Hors catégorie climb of the 2013 Tour de France, with Pierre Rolland finishing less than a minute behind him in an attempt to reclaim the polka dot jersey.

The final climb saw Chris Froome make his first push for the general classification.

With Richard Virenque and Laurent Jalabert for inspiration,[27] Pierre Rolland won 18 points on an "epic"[27] stage 9 to top the mountains classification outright.

While Chris Froome led the mountains classification going into this stage, the polka dot jersey was worn by 2nd placed Pierre Rolland because Chris Froome also had the yellow jersey.

As well as winning the stage and the final climb, Nairo Quintana also became the 2013 King of the Mountains.