Starting in the right breakaway, the Trek-Segafredo rider won the 13th stage this Friday, in Saint-Etienne after a long showdown with the peloton. Jonas Vingegaard remains in Yellow.
Mads Pedersen, premiere! Starting in the right breakaway and very offensive all day, the Dane of Trek-Segafredo took victory this Friday, on the 13th stage of the Tour de France 2022. His first victory on the Grande Boucle and in one of the three big rounds. The former world champion (2019) dominated Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Hugo Houle (Israel Premier Tech) in the sprint. Also escaped but dropped by the leading trio at the end, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) took the places of honor.
The yellow jersey remains on the shoulders of Dane Jonas Vingegaard. On the program on Saturday, 192.5 km between Saint-Etienne and Mende.
The fact of the day :
This 13e stage was a story of arm wrestling. The breakaway took time to take shape but a group of seven strong men managed to get away: Quinn Simmons (Trek) with his teammate Mads Pedersen; Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech); Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious); Filippo Ganna (Ineos); Stefan Küng (FDJ); Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar). In numerical superiority, the Trek-Segafredo took control of this breakaway through the youngest of this Tour 2022: Quinn Simmons. The young American released all his strength for his teammate Mads Pedersen. Excellent strategy since the Dane was indeed the strongest of the day up front. Quinn Simmons had gotten up, they were down to six up front when Pedersen attacked leaving Kung, Jorgenson and Ganna on the spot. Only Fred Wright and Hugo Houle were able to keep pace with the Dane. In a three-man sprint, the first attacker of the day was imperial and easily got rid of his last opponents.
The Trapped Platoon
Faced with these seven courageous teams, it was the Lotto-Soudal teams, for their sprinter Caleb Ewan, and Alpecin, for Jasper Philipsen, who took control of the peloton. The strategy was simple: drive very hard on the flat and drive hard in the bumps so as not to tire Ewan and Philipsen. The gap therefore varied between 1’30 and 2’30 between the leading men and the peloton. Yes but now, Caleb Ewan fell heavily 70 kilometers from the finish which made revise the plans of the Lotto. The Australian released, it was the BikeExchange formation for Matthews and Groenewegen who tried a last coup, in vain… 2’30 ahead for the breakaway, the peloton will never come back. The leading teams had no interest in rolling so the offensives were rewarded.
The number of the day
34. This is the temperature of the day between Bourg d’Oisans and Saint-Étienne. The riders again suffered from the scorching heat today on the Tour route. Cans galore, ice packs… Any solution was welcome to lower body temperature. Unfortunately for them, the heat should not decrease in the next few days.
Tweet of the day:
This is probably the turning point of this 13th stage. While the standoff was largely engaged between the breakaway and the Lotto-Soudal formation, which led the peloton, the sprinter of the Belgian team fell heavily in a left turn. He took a long time to get up, shocked by his misadventure, and could not influence the race as he would have liked. Lotto-Soudal subsequently stopped rolling.
Statement of the day:
Mads Pedersen the winner of the day: “There were 10 km left, there were 6 of us, I didn’t want too many people at the finish so we had to attack. It was a gamble but it worked out well for me. The Danes are in force? Yes the investment is starting to pay off. After the first week, I started to feel good, it gave me confidence. I was confident on my punch today. I was in the big block group, Quinn (Simmons) came back and attacked, so I followed his wheel. He then put in a lot of effort and allowed us to increase the gap with the peloton. He then gave up but it’s also thanks to him that I won today. »
Picture of the day:
The Tour de France is also that… Sometimes surprising scenery to encourage the runners. Here is a strange straw building blocking a model on her bike. The seven riders making up the breakaway of the day couldn’t even take advantage of it, the pace was too fast…
The classification of the 13th stage:
1. Mads Pedersen (DEN / TRE) les 192.6 km en 4 h 13:03.
2. Fred Wright (GBR / BAH) at 0 seconds.
3. Hugo Houle (CAN/ISR) 0.
4. Stefan Küng (SUI/GFJ) 30.
5. Matteo Jorgenson (USA/MOV) 30.
6. Filippo Ganna (ITA/INE) 32.
7. Wout van Aert (BEL/JUM) 5:45.
8. Florian Senechal (FRA / QST) 5:45.
9. Luca Mozzato (ITA / BBH) 5:45.
10. Andrea Pasqualon (ITA/INT) 5:45.
The general classification after the 13th stage:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN/Jumbo) 50:47:34.
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO/UAE) at 2:22.
3. Geraint Thomas (GBR/INE) 2:26.
Romain Bardet (FRA / DSM) 2:35.
5. Adam Yates (GBR/INE) 3:44.
6. Nairo Quintana (COL/ARK) 3:58.
7. David Gaudu (FRA / GFJ) 4:07.
8. Thomas Pidcock (GBR/INE) 7:39.
9. Enric Mas (ESP / MOV) 9:32.
10. Aleksander Vlasov (RUS/BOR) 10:06.