Fred Wright: In his post-race interview, the 23-year-old Briton said that he knew if he was going to beat Mads Pedersen he would have to attack him on the stiff climb some kilometres before the finish. “I just didn’t have the legs, to be honest,” he says.
💪 The battle of the breakaway came down to these 3
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2022
💪 La bataille de l'échappée a mis en lumière ses 3 coureurs !#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/6aseAbPl4Q
Stage 13 report: On a great day for Danes, Mads Pedersen broke his Tour de France stage duck, while his compatriot Jonas Vingegaard remains in the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
Top 10 on General Classification after stage 13
- 1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 50hrs 47mins 34secs
- 2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +2mins 22secs
- 3. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +2mins 26secs
- 4. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +2mins 35secs
- 5. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 44secs
- 6. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic) +3mins 58secs
- 7. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +4mins 07secs
- 8. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +7mins 39secs
- 9. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +9mins 32secs
- 10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +10mins 06secs
Mads Pedersen speaks: “It’s incredible to finally take a [Grand Tour stage] win,” he says, his voice cracking with emotion. “I definitely missed out on the opportunities in the first week and in the last two weeks of this race there’s not a lot of chances for a guy like me. So to get the chance today and take the reward, it’s really nice. Not just for me but for the whole team. We came here to ride only for stages and now we have one so it’s such a relief.”
The peloton rolls over the finish line. They’re nearly six minutes behind the winner, Mads Pedersen. Wout van Aert is first man over the line to snaffle a few more points towards the green jersey.
Updated
Pedersen wins pulling a cart. Not literally, of course ... but neither Wright nor Houle were able to offer anything in the way of resistance when the 26-year-old kicked for the finish line to win his first stage in the Tour de France.
Mads Pedersen wins stage 13!!!
The Dane attacks with 150 metres to go, wins easily and deserves the stage win after all his good work earlier in the stage. Pedersen wins the stage for Trek-Segafredo. Wright was second and Houle was third.
Updated
500m to go: Cat and mouse. Cat and mouse. Cat and mouse.
1km to go: Houle continues to lead with Pedersen on his wheel and Wright directly behind him.
2km to go: The road is narrow with barriers either side. Houle is on the front, wary of attacks and looking over his left shoulder.
3km to go: Fred Wright attacks after a tight left-hand turn but is unable to escape Pedersen and Houle.
4km to go: Fred Wright takes his turn at the front of a leading trio who are working very well together. If this goes to a sprint finish, Mads Pedersen will be favourite.,
7km to go: The leading trio are pedalling downhill towards a finishing stretch boasting numerous roundabouts that could conceivably cause problems for any rider who hasn’t done his homework.
9km to go: Houle attacks Pedersen and Wright as the road kicks up steeply but is unable to get away from them. If this lead trio start playing cat-and-mouse in the closing kilometres, Kung, Ganna and Jorgenson, who are 22 seconds behind them, might be able to catch up with them.
10km to go: Pedersen, Wright and Houle are working together but haven’t quite managed to shake off Kung, Jorgenson and Ganna, who are 18 seconds behind as the road widens and kicks upwards
10km to go: Mads Pedersen attacks off the front of the breakaway but Fred Wright and Hugo Houle catch him. They put a gap of 11 seconds between themselves and Ganna, Jorgenson and Kung
12km to go: Bikeexchange-Jayco have given up the chase at the front of the peloton, having realised that no other teams were interested in helping them. Our stage winner will come from the breakaway.
14km to go: Your six leaders: Stefan Kung (Groupama–FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Hugo Houle (Israel–Premier Tech) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) – a Swiss, an American, an Italian, a Dane, a Canadian and a Brit. The gap is 2min 18sec.
Updated
19km to go: Fred Wright and Matteo Jorgensen are the two best climbers in the breakaway, while Pedersen is probably the best sprinter. He did, however, fire a lot of bullets early in the stage as he launched one attack after another and may pay the price later.
21km to go: The seven-man breakaway has been reduced to six. Bearded Trek-Segafredo rider Quinn Simmons seems to have evaporated. He was doing a massive shift at the front, presumably in the service of his teammate Mads Pedersen.
23km to go: The gap remains at 2min 25sec but BikeExchange-Jayco continue to force a blistering pace at the front of the bunch, knowing there’s a stiff, if uncategorised climb for the breakaway to negotiate ahead of the finish.
29km to go: Jack Bauer, Amund Groendahl Jansen and Michael Matthews continue on their downhill chase of the race leaders. The gap is 2min 32sec. Behind the yellow jersey group is the polka dot jersey group, featuring Simon Geschke and Rigoberto Uran, among others. They’re four minutes off the pace. The stragglers including Fabio Jakobsen and Peter Sagan are further back, while Caleb Ewan is way off the pace and being nursed home by his team-mate Tim Wellens.
😱 What a save!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2022
😱 De justesse !#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/Mo5Ok1PQWj
33km to go: Having crested the top of the final climb, Jack Bauer leads the bunch downhill. Behind him, his teammate Amund Groendahl Jansen has a bad wobble as his back wheel slips out from under him but does well to stay upright.
37km to go: The gap is reduced to 2min 37sec and the peloton is strung out like Wednesday’s washing on the climb. Two riders from Team BikeExchange–Jayco are making a ferocious pace at the front of the bunch with Michael Matthews on third wheel. They haven’t given up hope of putting the Aussie in position to win the stage.
44km to go: The seven-man breakaway power their way up the Cote de Saint-Romain-en-Gal with the gap back to the peloton getting bigger and bigger. It’s now 3min 11sec and looking increasingly likely the winner of today’s stage will come from the breakaway.
Who’s in it? A reminder: Stefan Kung (Groupama–FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Mads Pedersen and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Hugo Houle (Israel–Premier Tech) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious).
45km to go: At the front of the bunch with the wind blowing hard, race leader Jonas Vingegaard and his rival Geraint Thomas appear to reach a mutual agreement to slow things down. With Caleb Ewan out the back and Fabio Jakobsen struggling badly today, the sprinters’ might not get to contest this stage.
Updated
48km to go: The riders of Alpecin-Deceuninck continue to make the pace at the front of the group, in a state of affairs that is likely to displease their counterparts from Lotto-Soudal, who would have hoped the peloton might slow down to benefit Caleb Ewan. There is a lot of needle between the two teams and there’s every chance Alpecin-Deceuninck are making a blistering pace for no reason other than mischievous devilment. The gap between the stage leaders and the bunch is 2min 25sec.
49km to go: Our seven-man breakaway is well on its way up the final climb of the day. The peloton hits the bottom of it and the injured Caleb Ewan is immediately dropped. The gap is 2min 06sec.
50km to go: Cofidis rider Victor Lafay has abandoned after several days of valiant struggle at the back of the bunch.
55km to go: The 6.7km long, 466m high Category 3 Cote de Saint-Romain-en-Gal lies in wait for the riders. Caleb Ewan is less than a minute behind the peloton but could lose more time as the road veers upwards.
Updated
According to France TV moto @Nicogeay the Lotto-Soudal care was making its own "barrage" to prevent the commissaire moto reaching Ewan and the Alpecin car 😂 pic.twitter.com/8l3qTZT9qx
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 15, 2022
63km to go: Caleb Ewan has slalomed through some traffic at the rear of the field and is now drafting behind his team car again. He’ll need to be careful or Lotto Soudal will get another rocket from the Tour overlords.
65km to go: The occupants of the Lotto-Soudal team car that was pacing Caleb Ewan back to the bunch get a stern telling-off from a very agitated race commisaire on the back of a motorbike.
Updated
67km to go: Lotto Soudal’s riders have dropped out of the bunch to wait for Ewan and help pace him back and the riders of Alpecin-Deceuninck have taken up the pace-making cudgels at the front of the peloton. The gap between the leaders and the peloton is 3min 43sec.
69km to go: Ewan is back on his bike but looks in extreme discomfort, holding his left knee. He’s trying to make his way back to the bunch, drafting behind a team car.
Caleb Ewan crashes!
After his team-mates had done all the hard work on the front of the bunch today, the Lotto-Soudal sprinter hits the deck hard on a corner after clipping a wheel and seems to have done his knee a proper mischief.
Updated
73km to go: The gap stretches to 2min 30sec, the biggest it’s been today. The leaders are on a fairly narrow country road, where Fred Wright is picking up some refreshments from his team car. Those bottles look very sticky.
🌬️There's been some breakages in the peloton! The top 3 in GC are in the front group but 💚 @WoutvanAert is in a group behind.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2022
🌬️ Il y a des cassures dans le peloton ! Le top 3 du classement général est dans le premier groupe mais💚 @WoutvanAert est à l'arrière.#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/NRKtqMz4Im
80km to go: The gap between our seven leaders and the bunch is back out to two minutes.
Updated
82km to go: The peloton has been split into three groups by crosswinds and a big group of riders, including Wout van Aert, have been caught out at the back of the bunch. At the front of the bunch, Philippe Gilbert is leading them up the third climb of the day, possibly a little too fast for his team-mate Caleb Ewan’s liking.
The Aussie is quite animated but I’m not sure whether he wants Gilbert to slow down so he can keep up or speed up in a bid to make life difficult for any sprinters who might have missed the split caused by the wind.
82km to go: I had one job! One job! And I made a mess of it! It was Mads Pedersen, not Filippo Ganna who rolled across to take 20 points in the intermediate sprint.
88km to go: The surprise winner of the opening time trial on this year’s Tour, Yves Lampaert’s race took a turn for the worse yesterday when he was brought down by a rogue dog. The fall left him cut and bruised and he finished in 156th place, 40 minutes behind stage winner Tom Pidcock.
“Crash because of a dog,” he said on Instagram. “After already many times; please keep your dog at home!!!!!”
Updated
90km to go: Filippo Ganna leads the seven-man breakaway group under the green arch for an uncontested intermediate sprint. Behind them,. Wout van Aert hoovers up the points available for eighth. The green jersey is all but his if he can stay on his bike until Paris.
Updated
Got sent this… 🤣🥸 pic.twitter.com/0Wuy2CK1Pj
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) July 14, 2022
92km to go: The gap is in to 1min 17sec and young Briton Fred Wright is doing a turn on the front. At the back end of the race, Fabio Jakobsen has rejoined the peloton.
It's another super fast day on the roads of #TDF2022
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 15, 2022
The attackers' average speed in the first 90km: 46.0km/h
They're on track for one of the fastest averages in this year's @LeTour #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/bhaeBLKR5x
94km to go: Already a stage winner on this Tour, Dutch Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sprinter Fabio Jakobsen has been dropped off the back of a peloton that is on edge because of the wind and is pedalling alone at the back of the bunch. He was drafting behind a race ambulance and is now back among the team cars. His teammate Matteo Cattaneo has dropped out of the bunch to try to pace him back.
100km to go: The intermediate sprint at La Cote Saint-Andre is next up in two or three kilometres. Wout van Aert is in the green jersey with 313 points. Tadej Pogacar is second with 159 and Fabio Jakobsen is third with 155. Barring accident or illness, Van Aert is guaranteed to hold on to the green jersey until the end of stage 15 at least.
103km to go: Our seven-man breakaway of Stefan Kung (Groupama–FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Mads Pedersen and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Hugo Houle (Israel–Premier Tech) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) have a lead of 2min 09sec.
104km to go: The peloton has split into three distinct groups after some of the riders got caught in crosswinds.
⛰ There's no contest at the summit as 🇩🇰 @Mads__Pedersen passes Col de Parménie (CAT 2️⃣) first.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2022
1️⃣🇩🇰 @Mads__Pedersen, 5 pts
2️⃣🇨🇭 @stefankueng, 3 pts
3️⃣🇮🇹 @GannaFilippo, 2 pts
4️⃣🇺🇸 @QuinnSimmons9, 1 pt#TDF2022 ⚪️🔴 https://t.co/oFbzUXfgVA
116km to go: Our breakaway group pedal onwards and upwards towards the top of the Col de Parmenie with a lead of 1min 52sec over the peloton. Lotto-Soudal continue to make the pace back in the bunch, presumably hoping to set up a stage win for Caleb Ewan in a sprint finish.
120km to go: The riders of Aussie sprinter Caleb Ewan’s Lotto-Soudal team are at the front of the peloton, with Philippe Gilbert putting in the hard yards. Alpecin-Deceuninck are helping with the pace-making duties. The gap is 1min 35sec.
122km to go: The gap between the breakaway and the bunch is 1min 46sec as the leaders approach the slopes of the Category 3 Col de Parmenie, which is 571m high.
127km to go: In the lead group, Jorgenson rides alongside his team car to collect a few bidons. He puts two in the cages and squirts the third over his head and shoulders.
128km to go: The gap is at 2min 15sec and Jorgenson is about to rejoin the leaders after his mechanical. Back in the yellow jersey bunch, a moto rides alongside race leader Jonas Vingegaard, who waves for the camera.
130km to go: In the lead group, Jorgenson punctures, quickly acquires a new wheel, remounts and goes off in pursuit of his fellow escapees.
Seven riders clear in the breakaway
132km to go: Your leading septet: Stefan Kung (Groupama–FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Mads Pedersen and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Hugo Houle (Israel–Premier Tech) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious)
Updated
135km to go: Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Hugo Houle ( Israel–Premier Tech), Quinn Simmons (Trek–Segafredo) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) have joined Kung, Ganna and Jorgenson at the front of the race.
The gap to the bunch is 1min 41sec and I think that finally, after over 50 kilometres of often frantic racing on what many fatigued riders might have hoped would be a nice easy transition stage, we might just have ourselves a breakaway.
143km to go: Kung (Groupama–FDJ), Jorgenson (Movistar) and Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) stretch their lead over the peloton to 41 seconds but are about to be joined by a chasing quartet containing the apparently tireless Mads Pedersen, among others.
Fort de la Bastille above Grenoble. Very steep climb, has hosted Dauphiné stages. Annual uphill TT for locals. There's a restaurant that has had Michelin star, its chef has long worked with the Ag2r Citroën team during the Tour pic.twitter.com/2V8liZLBil
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 15, 2022
148km to go: The riders of Alpecin-Deceuninck put in a mighty shift at the front of the peloton to catch the 21-man group who were chasing our lead trio. Their herculean efforts at the front of the bunch cause splits but the peloton quickly regroups. Kung, Ganna and Jorgenson have a lead of just 17 seconds.
152km to go: Correction - that 15-man group is in fact a 19-man group. They are Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Patrick Konrad and Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Mattia Cattaneo and Mikkel Honoré (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Cofidis), Damiano Caruso and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Chris Hamilton and Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Easy Post), Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal), Mads Pedersen and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies), Hugo Houle and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Nick Schultz (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Luca Mozzato (B&B Hotels-KTM).
153km to go: Several Alpecin-Deceuninck riders are towing the yellow jersey group along, trying to bridge a gap of 22 seconds to the next 15-man group on the road.
157km to go: Our leading trio – Ganna, Jorgenson and Kung – have a lead of 15 seconds over the chasing posse of about 15 riders, with the peloton another 47 seconds back. The two lead groups will probably join forces but the stage still hasn’t settled.
"Two 3rd category climbs and a 2nd category climb will provide springboards for some attacks"@antmccrossan talks you through the traps of Stage 13 of #TDF2022 #TDFdata @LeTour pic.twitter.com/eZO9Uy6Qis
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 15, 2022
161km to go: A sizable group including Peter Sagan and Fabio Jakobsen have been dropped on the first climb. At the front, Ganna, Jorgenson and Kung are being chased by a group of about 15 riders.
162kim to go: The front five are caught and Ineos Grenadiers rider Filippo Ganna powers up the 900m climb with Stefan Kung and Matteo Jorgenson on his wheel.
164km to go: The five-man group including Danny van Poppel, Pierre-Luc Perichon, Mads Pedersen, Luca Mozzato and Taco van der Hoorn have a 15-second lead on the first climb of the day. Van der Hoorn looks to have already burnt one match too many and starts going backwards.
Updated
166km to go: Three kilometres from the Category 3 Cote de Brie, the peloton regroups. Mads Pedersen and Taco van der Hoorn launch another attack with three other riders.
171km to go: Peter Sagan bridges the gap between the bunch and what currently passes for the breakaway.
173km to go: Our five-man jailbreak has a lead of about 15 seconds over a peloton that is motoring along at over 60km per hour.
Updated
175km to go: Kamil Gradek, Taco van der Hoorn and Jeremy Lecroq were the original escape party and the quintet have a lead of a few seconds on the chasing bunch.
175km to go: Still no breakaway but a trio of as yet unidentified riders have put a few metres of asphalt between themselves and the bunch. They’re joined by two more, Matis Louvel and Nils Pollett.
185km to go: Riding at an average speed of 54km per hour, Swiss Groupama-FDJ rider Stefan Kung is up near the front, looking to escape the bunch. It’s all very cagey at the moment.
187km to go: No breakaway has escaped yet but the front of the peloton is well strung out with a long line of riders riding two abreast or in single file.
Updated
187km to go: A couple of Ineos Grenadiers riders, Luke Rowe and FIlippo Ganna, are among a group of riders who try to attack the bunch. Nothing comes of their attack. Now Mads Pedersen tests the waters for a second time.
They’re racing: A wave of the flag from Christian Prudhomme sends the riders on their way and Trek–Segafredo’s Mads Pederson is off like a bat out of hell. He puts some distance between himself and the front of the bunch but is quickly reeled in.
The roll-out has begun: The peloton is whirring along behind the official race car, waiting for the semaphored signal to begin racing, which will come in a little under three kilometres.
🎙🇦🇺 @CalebEwan
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2022
"Everyone is tired after the Alps. There are not many opportunities to win a stage on the Tour de France, so we have to take the opportunities we have. We have a plan for today."#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/N9HEGQbghF
Warren Barguil withdraws after positive Covid test
France’s Warren Barguil became the latest rider to pull out of the Tour de France after testing positive for Covid-19 ahead of stage 13, his team Arkea-Samsic said on Friday.
Barguil is the sixth rider to leave the race due to a positive test for the virus since the start on 1 July. “Our seven other riders have all tested negative,” Arkea-Samsic wrote on Twitter. “Thank you for everything [Warren].” Barguil becomes the 18th rider to leave this year’s Tour, for one reason or another, leaving 158 riders in the peloton.
Top 10 on GC after stage 12
- 1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 46hrs 28mins 46secs
- 2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +2mins 22secs
- 3. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +2mins 26secs
- 4. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +2mins 35secs
- 5. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 44secs
- 6. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic) +3mins 58secs
- 7. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +4mins 07secs
- 8. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +7mins 39secs
- 9. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +9mins 32secs
- 10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +10mins 06secs
Stage 12 report: In one of the most remarkable exhibitions of climbing and descending seen in the modern Tour de France, Tom Pidcock set out his stall as a future contender by becoming the youngest stage winner at Alpe d’Huez, wrote Jeremy Whittle.
Stage 13: Le Bourg D'Oisans to Saint Etienne (192.6km)
The transitional road from the Alps to the Massif Central is well trodden, and this stage has enough climbing to make it hard to control the race, writes William Fotheringham. The early break is odds-on to succeed. The battle to get into the winning move will be intense, and the flat finish favours a specialist stage hunter with a sprint, such as Denmark’s Magnus Cort Nielsen or Mathieu Van der Poel if he’s still in the race. [Narrator’s voice: “Mathieu van der Poel is not still in the race.”]
