Michael Rogers mover shaves time from Chris Froome Decisive move: Team Saxo-Tinkoff splits the peleton. SAINT AMAND MONTROND: Australian Michael Rogers was instrumental in executing a brazen Tour de France move in the 13th stage from Tours to Saint Amand Montrond on Friday that saw British yellow jersey wearer Chris Froome lose more than a minute of his lead. In the least expected of days - one that was meant to have seen the peloton charge over the flat course with the sprinters taking charge at the finish - the overall classification was given a mighty shake up when Rogers and his Saxo-Tinkoff teammates that included Spanish leader and Tour contender, Alberto Contador, ignited a mighty push at the front of an already split group in crosswinds to leave Froome (Sky) floundering. Last sprinter standing: Mark Cavendish of Great Britain claims the stage victory. The move came with about 32km to go in the 173km stage that was still won by a sprinter in Briton Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) who latched onto the final split after his team had ridden so hard in an earlier split to shed many of his key rivals for the expected bunch sprint. That first split also formed in crosswinds, but with 110km to go. Soon after, Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who was with the Omega Pharma-QuickStep group and began the day placed second overall to Froome, was cast adrift from when he punctured 84km out. Race leader Chris Froome of Great Britain loses more than a minute to chief rival Alberto Contador. From that moment, Valverde's overall hopes were over and he went on to finish the stage in 70th place at 9mins 54secs to Cavendish and the depleted front group of eight riders that included Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Belkin), Dane Jacob Fuglsang (Astana), Dutchman Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Roman Kreuzinger (Saxo-Tinkoff) of the Czech Republic, Contador and Dutchman Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) in that order. Rogers, who was driving the front group much of the way, finished 10th on the stage at 9secs. At 1min 9 secs came the group that included Froome, whose only teammates with him when the split was made were Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas and Peter Kennaugh. Also in it were Australian Cadel Evans (BMC), and Spaniard Joaquim Rodrigiuez (Katusha). While Froome still leads the Tour, his lead is now 2 mins 28secs on Mollema who moved up from 3rd at 3mins 25secs to second, and 2mins 45secs on Contador who was fourth at 3mins 54secs but is now third. Evans, who was 14th at 6mins 54secs, is now 12th at the same time. And Rogers, after all his efforts in the decisive final move with Italian teammate Daniele Bennati, also moved up from 16th at 8mins 28secs to 13th at 7mins 28secs. Michael Rogers (R) of Team Saxo-Tinkoff drives the pace. Rogers was shattered when he reached his Saxo-Tinkoff bus after finishing and had to crawl up the bus steps after dismounting his bike. The Canberran told reporters that the stage "was worse than a mountain stage. It was one of the hardest days I've ever had at the Tour. Later, Rogers laughed when told that the move was similar to the one he and his former Colombia-HTC teammates - including Cavendish - put into practice in crosswinds in the 196km third stage of the 2008 Tour from Marseille to La Grand Motte. "The pain, yes [laughs] ... it was very similar," a smiling Rogers told Fairfax Media as he warmed down, riding on a stationary bike, in the cooling shade outside the team bus. It was exactly the right conditions, exactly the right wind. You need to have the team to do it to. We had the numbers. But this is what this race is all about. When the opportunities arise like that, you have to take advantage of them. I hope it doesn't happen tomorrow. Rogers said the decision to ramp up the pace "was a split second decision ... right place, right time" and reminded that Saxo-Tinkoff had said they were ready to take the offensive. We said we would attack in the second part of the race. We clawed back a little bit of time today - a minute," he said. Froome still has a good couple of minute's advantage. We are not going to go down fighting. We will try again, and we will try and try again. And if we get to Paris as No 1 - great. Asked if Saxo-Tinkoff will need be on their toes for Saturday's 14th stage to Lyon in case teams like BMC and Katusha might try a similar move, he said: "Yeah exactly. You need the team to do it. I don't think there are many teams that have the strength and we did. Rogers said no words were spoken between he and Bennati to make their move, nor was Contador asked if he was ready to go with it. I just looked at Bennati. It was a relatively hard day right up to there and we both understood. The whole team was there ... no words took place," he said. Contador was certainly happy for his teammates' response to the opportunity. We didn't expect to make so much damage. There was a moment we almost gave up. It was 10 seconds, 10 seconds, but they kept pushing the pedals. It's an incredible demonstration of the strength of this team," he said. The Tour is far from over. A thousand things can happen any day. The decision was something that you make in the moment. Evans, meanwhile, said Friday's stage was an "interesting day ... the first split there was a little bit expected, but the big thing there was that Valverde had a really unfortunate puncture. I'm sorry for him but that's the way racing goes. It has happened to me in the past," Evans said. In the second split there with Contador, that was a good move by them, they held back, they stayed calm and then they went. And I think they got a much bigger element of surprise. But yeah ... a bit of a 'GC' [general classification] shake up on a day we didn't expect. Evans lamented not making the Saxo-Tinkoff move near the end, saying: "I am disappointed that I missed the final split as well. I'm moving forward a couple of places ... from 14th, I need to move forward a lot of places. But we have a couple of big days of racing over the weekend. So we will see.