Tour de France stage 13: Mads Pedersen wins out of breakaway

Mads Pedersen’s determined ride on an undulating stage 13 of the Tour de France on Friday was a display of the same strength that earned him the world championship title in 2019.

Pedersen unleashed his sprint with approximately 250 meters to go, easily beating British rider Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) and the Canadian Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) to the line in Saint-Étienne.

Three other riders from the day’s break, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), finished half a minute back, with Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) padding his green jersey lead by winning the bunch sprint for seventh, 5:45 behind.

“It is incredible to finally take a win,” Pedersen said. “I knew the shape was really good. I definitely missed the opportunities in the first week. The last two weeks don’t have a lot of chances for a guy like me, so to take the chance today and get the reward is really nice. Not only for me, but for the whole team.

“We came here with riders only for stages and now we have one, so that is such a relief.”

The Dane was in the thick of it from the start of the stage. He was the day’s first attacker, then got involved in an unsuccessful break after 26 kilometers of racing, then was part of a short-lived chase group behind three leaders two kilometers later and, finally, bridged across to those leaders with three others at kilometer 51.

Together with the initial trio of Ganna, Küng, and Jorgenson, plus Wright, Houle, and Pedersen’s Trek-Segafredo teammate Quinn Simmons, Pedersen established a small but persistent lead over the peloton.

Travelling over undulating terrain, the advantage hovered between one and a half and two and a half minutes for much of the stage, with Simmons sacrificing his own chances to help Pedersen. Despite the small gap, the final capture by the sprinters’ teams never happened.

That was derailed in part by a crash involving Caleb Ewan, which caused his Lotto Soudal squad to abandon its pacesetting. Subsequent attempts by Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl and BikeExchange-Jayco to reel in the move were unsuccessful, and the peloton eventually gave up.

Pedersen talked about the day’s tactics. “If it was more than four guys [clear] we should be in, I should be in the break,” he said. “We didn’t know how the other teams wanted to take the last climb with 45 to go. For a long time I thought it was a mistake to be in the break because we only had two minutes, but in the end it paid off to be in there.

“Today was super hard for everyone, it was such a warm day, so everyone was on the limit.”

Towards the end he decided not to rely on his sprint and to instead whittle down the list of contenders. He kicked clear with just over 12 kilometers left, dispatching Küng, Jorgenson and Ganna, then covered moves by Wright and Houle to shake him off.

“I really didn’t want to be at the finish with six riders,” he explained. “It would be too many guys to control. So I tried to attack. Luckily we split up the break, so there were only three guys and it was a lot easier to control for me. From there, from ten to five, I just wanted to make the gap as big as possible so we had time to slow down and gamble a bit in the last few kilometers. Luckily it paid off for me today.”

Highlights

A day for the break

After two tough days in the high Alps, Friday’s stage 13 looked set for either the breakaway riders or the sprinters. The 192.6 kilometer trek from Le Bourg d’Oisans to Saint-Étienne was much flatter than the preceding days, while still featuring plenty of rolling ground.

After descending roads early on, the riders encountered the category 3 Côte de Brié (km 30.4), the second category Col de Parménie (km 79.2) and the third category Côte de Saint-Romain-en-Gal (km 148.6), which was followed by a rolling 44 kilometers to the finish.

The stage also had an intermediate sprint 101.6 kilometers after the start. Interestingly, the peloton would pass the Andreï Kivilev roundabout just before the final kilometer, named after the Kazakhstani rider who died in Saint-Etienne after a fall during stage two of the 2003 Paris-Nice. His death changed the sport forever, prompting the UCI to introduce mandatory helmet wearing and likely saving other lives.

The former world champ set the tone on the stage when he attacked right after the drop of the flag. Many skirmishes followed, with Ganna among the most prominent and finally snapped the elastic on the day’s first climb, the Côte de Brié. He, Küng, and Jorgenson went clear there, with Ganna leading them past the prime line.

A group of 19 including Pedersen tried to get across but was reeled in by Alpecin-Deceuninck. After 45 kilometers of racing the three leaders were 20 seconds clear of the peloton, and were joined six kilometers later by Pedersen, his American teammate Simmons, Wright, and Houle. Owen Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) had tried to bridge alone but was unable to do so.

Breakaway group takes fight to the sprinters’ teams

The seven leaders had a lead of two minutes after 65 kilometers, despite Jorgenson being delayed by a puncture. Pedersen led Küng and the others over the top of the second category Col de Parménie (km. 79.2), where the peloton was 2:35 adrift. Soon afterwards, though, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lotto-Soudal and Ineos Grenadiers put the hammer down and split the bunch into three pieces. This hewed the break’s advantage down to 1:40 with 100 kilometers remaining.

Pedersen collected the intermediate sprint points ahead of Ganna, Houle and the others, while green jersey Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took the points for eighth without any need for a sprint. Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step AlphaVinyl) had been off the back due to a puncture and saw his deficit in the points classification increase even further.

The Lotto Soudal team of Caleb Ewan sensed the possibility for a sprint and was chasing with the help of Alpecin-Deceuninck. Their momentum saw the gap fall to 1:25 with 85 kilometers to go, but the break responded and added a minute to that buffer over the following 13 kilometers.

A crash ruins Australian hopes

Lotto Soudal’s work for Ewan unraveled very soon afterwards when the Australian clipped a teammate’s wheel on a left hand bend and hit the ground. He was left grimacing and holding his knee, but remounted and tried to get back to the bunch.

Quick-Step AlphaVinyl began riding at the front, making it harder for Ewan to return, but he and his team managed to halve his deficit from two minutes to one minute, and then to 40 seconds. With 50 kilometers left the race moved onto the third category Côte de Saint-Romain-en-Gal and there Ewan sat up, his injury and the terrain making his rejoining of the bunch too difficult. The break was two minutes clear of the peloton at that point.

Simmons had been riding for Pedersen and was dropped by the break with approximately 45 kilometers left. Behind, Jakobsen was also in trouble and was jettisoned from the peloton. However the main bunch sat up, allowing him to claw his way back on, then resumed chasing when BikeExchange-Jayco opted to try to set things up for Dylan Groenewegen.

Things didn’t go their way: with 35 kilometers remaining, the gap was 2:35. Ten kilometers after that it was 2:29, handing the break a solid opportunity. The riders out front grabbed the chance and still had 2:23 in hand with 12.5 kilometers remaining, where Pedersen attacked.

Making sure of the win

Wright and Houle quickly reacted and got up to him, with Ganna initially struggling but taking up the chase behind with Jorgenson and Küng. They were however 20 seconds back with eight kilometers remaining, and 28 back with three to go.

Wright kicked hard at that point but was quickly covered by the other two. Houle tried to get a gap with two to go but immediately eased back on the gas when he was marked. He rolled on at the front and brought them into the final kilometer, where Pedersen dispatched them with ease to land the first Tour stage win of his career.