Friday the 13th at the Tour de France showered a mixed bag of fate on the 183 riders who began the sixth stage. Some crashed, others suffered through the heat with injuries, but most had uneventful rides. One declared the supposedly ill-omened day downright lucky. Before and after the 200km stage, riders expressed a similarly wide range of beliefs on the date.

Steven De Jongh (Quick Step-Innergetic) was among those in the mildly superstitious camp.

“With number 13 I have had some very bad crashes,” the Belgian said at the start. “So I will be very careful today.”

Whenever De Jongh receives 13 as his race bib number he sticks it on upside down, he said. On his jersey zipper he wore a wooden keepsake from his sons Jesper and Jorne for luck.

“I am not afraid today,” he said with a laugh before the race. “But if something happens, then it’s because it’s Friday the 13th.”

Barloworld’s Enrico Degano may not be superstitious, but he certainly wasn’t feeling lucky when crashed in the feed zone, banging up his chest and elbow.

CSC’s Jens Voigt wasn’t interested in the date, saying that, yes, there were a few spills, but that was to be expected.

“Oh, yeah, of course; we always have crashes,” Voigt said. “Someone told me in the race that it was Friday the 13th. I don’t really think it means anything.”

Voigt said the day was surprisingly easy for CSC — despite the fact that the team retained the yellow jersey — as the sprinters’ teams kept things together. That fact was confirmed post-race by the power meter on the bike of Voigt’s teammate Christian’s Vande Velde. Average power for the five-hour-plus ride? 170 watts.

Other riders like Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) couldn’t have cared less about the number on the calendar. Rolling through the pressing throngs of media and fans on the way to the bus after the finish, he summed up how his day went: “Pretty good. Nothing special.”

But don’t tell that to Quick Step’s Tom Boonen, who ended his Tour de France drought with a sprint win on the sweltering streets of Bourg-en-Bresse.

After the race he said the victory went, as always, to the man who was able to find an opening at the key moment.

“Today I found my luck; hopefully it stays for a few weeks,” he said. “Friday the 13th from now is a lucky day.”