With just 300 meters to go, a trio formed in front of Trek-Segafredo’s breakaway man, who had decided to go for the win today. But on 15th July, Friday, all the efforts against him failed, as the young man launched a sprint and dashed pass the trio. He fought off Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) to hold his fort until the finish line.
In the blink of an eye, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won stage 13 at Saint-Etienne. He was also chased by Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo). They all tried their luck by attacking Pedersen, but terribly failed. The chase was even more thrilling than stage 12.
Only Houle and Wright were able to stick to the man in the chase. They tried to outrun Pedersen, collectively as well as individually, but to no use. The Dutch cyclist managed to create a gap between him and the others, coercing Wright to take second, and Houle to settle for third.
The overall classification remains the same. The GC leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) is leading at 2:22 while Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) follows him at 2:26. On the third we have Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).
Talking about his striking win, Pedersen said:
It’s incredible to finally take a win [at the Tour]. I knew the shape was really good. I definitely missed out on some opportunities in the first week
He continued to say:
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. Today it was super hard for everyone. Everyone was really on the limit
The Tour now heads to Mende for stage 14, on Saturday.
Results
| POS | RIDER | TEAM | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mads Pedersen | Trek-Segafredo | 04:13:03 |
| 2 | Fred Wright | Bahrain Victorious | + 00 |
| 3 | Hugo Houle | Israel-Premier Tech | + 00 |
| 4 | Stefan Küng | Groupama-FDJ | + 30 |
| 5 | Matteo Jorgenson | Movistar Team | + 30 |
| 6 | Filippo Ganna | INEOS Grenadiers | + 32 |
| 7 | Wout van Aert | Jumbo-Visma | + 05:45 |
| 8 | Florian Sénéchal | Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team | + 05:45 |
| 9 | Luca Mozzato | B&B Hotels-KTM | + 05:45 |
| 10 | Andrea Pasqualon | Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert | + 05:45 |
Also Read: Tour De France Crash: Bad Luck Haunts Caleb Ewan
Featured Image Via YouTube/ Eurosport France
