EF Education-EasyPost went on the attack during the fast and furious 13th stage of the Tour de France.

Michael Valgren, Kasper Asgreen, and Ben Healy sprinted into the action, making a huge 56-rider split on the rolling roads out of Dole. The pace never let up as they hurtled towards the Ballon d'Alsace, the famous summit in the Vosges.

The Ballon d'Alsace was the first mountain that the Tour ever crossed. Back in 1905, Hippolyte Aucouturier won the stage, a 299-kilometer contest from Nancy to Besançon. At 205.8 km, plus 12 km neutral, today's stage wasn't that long, but it was the longest of this year's Tour de France. Still, the break averaged well over 50 km/hr to the foot of the Col des Croix, the first climb on course. Near the summit, Ben launched an attack to try to get away with a smaller group, but the rest of the break didn't let him go anywhere. After a short descent, they hit the lower slopes of the Ballon d'Alsace and the break exploded. Michael Valgren hung tough, coming over the top 30 seconds behind the leaders. He chased hard down the descent, but couldn't make it back and finished 12th on the stage.

We wanted more today. We are all the more motivated to go for it again tomorrow. Stage 14 takes us from Mulhouse to Le Markstein, across the Grand Ballon, Col du Pigeonnier, and Ballon d'Alsace, before the summit finish up the Col du Haag. We're not going to stop attacking.

"I got dropped at the bottom of the climb, so I didn't see what happened, but until then it was super, super fast. Everyone could see that. We had more than 50 km/hr average when we reached the bottom of the Ballon d'Alsace. It was incredibly fast, but we gave it a shot, and I think we did what we wanted to do. If we keep knocking on it like this, then at some point it's going to work out for us." – Kasper Asgreen

"There wasn't any tactical or technical racing, honestly, in the final. You come into the Ballon d'Alsace, knowing it's going to be the hardest part of the day, and there are good climbers in the group. My plan was basically to have Ben there, and I expected Valgren to be with Matthews, roughly 10, 15 seconds behind. Then, if they came together, you'd have two cards to play in the finale. It was always going to be hard to win in the sprint, but still – you'd be in the sprint. It was about legs on the day. It wasn't a case of tactics. It was hard, because everybody had to work hard at the start. You had a mix of GC teams there and the group was constantly splitting. You were never safe just sitting at the back, because it kept splitting and it was dangerous, so everyone had to put in a lot of effort. But honestly, I think that was the same for most of the group.

"When he's good, Ben makes moves to soften people up, to put people into difficulty, so he can launch off the back of that – that's what that first attack was. It wasn't a move to win the race, it was a move to make the race harder.

"It only gets harder from here. Tomorrow, we've got a 15-kilometer climb right from the start. We've still got more cards to play. Let's see if we can use them tomorrow." – Tom Southam, sports director

At 205.8 kilometers plus a 12-kilometer neutral, today was the longest stage of this year's Tour de France. We were keen to see how our Cadillac Lyriq race car's battery would hold up. After over an hour's drive to the start, and then four hours of full-speed racing, rocketing between the caravan and the break to feed Michael, Ben, and Kasper with bars, bidons, and gels, the Lyriq still had 53% charge. Regenerative braking down the descent boosted it a few percent.

Antoine and Grégoire from La Tête Dans le Guidon rocked up to our hotel in Mulhouse with their folding chairs, hoping to interview Richard Carapaz. It was going to be the first time they had a grand tour winner on their show, but our hotel didn't exactly have a lawn for them to set up. So we walked across the road, where Mogens Frey happened to win Denmark’s first-ever Tour de France stage victory back in 1970, and set up camp by a bike path by the river. The local muskrat didn't know what to make of the cameras, but Richie had a great time with the boys as they practiced their Spanish.

Owen and Chris made the guys sticky toffee pudding. Dessert is an underrated time to fuel up with some extra carbs to recover from a hard day and make sure you have energy for the day ahead. This is one of our team's favorite after-dinner treats.

Ingredients:

Pudding:

250 g pitted dates, chopped

375 ml boiling water

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

125 g unsalted butter, softened

200 g dark brown soft sugar

2 large eggs

250 g flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

50 g sourdough starter

For the toffee sauce:

250 g dark brown soft sugar

250 ml double cream

125 g unsalted butter

1 tbsp black treacle (optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Method:

Soak the dates in the boiling water with the bicarbonate of soda for 10 to 15 minutes, then mash lightly.

Cream the butter and sugar until light, then beat in the eggs one at a time and add the vanilla.

Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Fold in the sourdough starter (if using), then the date mixture.

Bake in a greased tin (approximately 20 by 20 centimeters) at 340 F (170 C fan) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Simmer the sauce ingredients together for 5 to 8 minutes until smooth.

Pierce the baked pudding, pour over about one-third of the warm sauce, let it soak in for 10 to 15 minutes, and serve with the remaining sauce.

The French and English words for descent are almost identical. Descente and descent both come from the Latin root descendere. In Latin, the prefix de- means down, while scandere is to climb. Descendere literally means to down-climb. Stage 13 of the Tour ended with a screeching-fast, technical descent from the summit of the Ballon d'Alsace to Belfort. Racing down the climb took all of our riders' bike-handling prowess.