Mark Cavendish wins stage as Alberto Contador closes gap on Chris Froome Mark Cavendish takes his 25th Tour de France stage win as a breakaway slashes Chris Froome's overall lead. Mark Cavendish beats Peter Sagan, right, to the line to win stage 13 of the Tour de France. MARK Cavendish won a drama-filled 13th stage of the Tour de France as Spain's former two-time winner Alberto Contador narrowed the gap to yellow jersey holder Chris Froome. Omega-Pharma sprinter Cavendish, taking his second win of the 100th edition of the race and 25th of his career, dominated a two-up sprint with Slovakian Peter Sagan. The British champion had been near the front when Contador's Saxo team turned the screw on Team Sky and caused a split in the peloton 31km from the finish. It left a group of 14 frontrunners to build a lead on the main bunch that grew to 1min 9sec by the finish, but with few sprinters of Cavendish's class among the group the Isle of Man rider won with relative ease. "In the end it was just Sagan and myself, I was really happy to beat him," said Cavendish, who was beaten at the line on Thursday when German rival Marcel Kittle claimed his third win of the race. The lead group's pace soon left Froome behind and the Sky team of the Kenyan-born Briton crumbled for the second time in the race as they fought to close the gap. One by one Sky dropped off the pace, leaving Froome isolated and requiring the help of other teams in the chase. Their failure to plug the gap in tough conditions left a 14-strong leading group, being driven mainly by Contador's Saxo team, to forge ahead and finish 1min 9sec ahead. As a result, Contador moved up one place to third overall and, after sitting with a 3:54 overnight deficit, is now only 2:45 behind Froome, with Dutchman Bauke Mollema in second at 2:28. Cadel Evans remains the leading Australian, almost seven minutes down in 12th place, one better than Michael Rogers. Froome, who saw his Sky team collapse on Sunday, a day after he took the stage eight win and yellow jersey at Ax-Trois-Domaines, admitted he will have to pay special attention for the rest of the race. "I've still got a comfortable lead, but today was just another reminder that this race is wide open," Froome said. I've always known Contador and Saxo Bank are ready to take the race to you, so it's another reminder that you have to stay awake at all times.