Schmid's Secret: Stage 13 Tour de France spectacle on multiple fronts, Pidcock makes huge gains
CyclingFriday, 17 July 2026 at 21:33
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Follow us on GoogleMauro Schmid managed to claim stage 13 of the 2026 Tour de France on Friday. The stage turned into a battle on multiple fronts: the green jersey, the general classification, and of course, the stage victory in Belfort. Tom Pidcock did well for the general classification.
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The thirteenth stage of the Tour de France takes the riders toward the hills of the Vosges. However, we won’t reach them until Friday, after 150 kilometers of racing. With the Col des Croix (5.1 kilometers at a 4.8 percent gradient) and the Ballon d'Alsace (8.9 kilometers at a 6.9 percent gradient), the toughest part of the stage is in the final stretch. After the summit of the last climb, the route is mostly downhill, leading to a fast finish in Belfort.
Long flat start to the stage sees a huge breakaway fight
But first, they had to cover a race of around 150 kilometres across the plains. On a day that’s tailor-made for an early breakaway, it usually takes an awfully long time to materialise. Five strong, experienced riders found this out the hard way: Kasper Asgreen, Michał Kwiatkowski, Louis Vervaeke, Georg Zimmermann and Alex Kirsch broke away, but didn’t quite manage to stay clear. After 25 kilometres, their adventure was over.
Shortly afterwards, a large group of 37 riders suddenly broke away, including Tom Pidcock, Brandon McNulty, Romain Grégoire and Jasper Philipsen. Notably, whilst Philipsen was in the break as a contender for the green jersey, Mads Pedersen missed the move. And so the German team, with Mathias Vacek and Pedersen himself, were forced to go fully on the defensive.
Lidl-Trek on the back foot, but the large breakaway group proved too strong
The group comprised Brandon McNulty, Tim Wellens (UAE), Victor Campenaerts, Per Strand Hagenes (Visma), Tim van Dijke, Maxim van Gils (Red Bull), Ben Healy, Michael Valgren (EF), Nicolas Vinokurov (Astana), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain), Kévin Vauquelin (INEOS), Jasper Philipsen, Edward Planckaert, Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin), Mauro Schmid (Jayco), George Bennett (NSN), Raul Garcia Pierna, Michel Hessmann, Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and...
Part two: Ion Izagirre, Alex Aranburu, Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Tom Pidcock, Quinten Hermans, Xandro Meurisse, Fred Wright (Q36.5), Romain Grégoire, Lorenzo Germani, Quentin Pacher, Clément Russo (Groupama), Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi, Rick Pluimers (Tudor), Jordan Jegat, Nicolas Breuillard, Thibault Guernalec (Total) and John Degenkolb (Picnic). Quite a group, that.
Lidl-Trek gave up after 10 kilometres of battling, and so the group was suddenly gone, without riders from Lidl-Trek, Netcompany INEOS, Uno-X or riders we’d been expecting such as Mathieu van der Poel, Richard Carapaz and Tobias Halland Johannessen. And so Pedersen decided to try a different approach: by jumping on the back of the group.
Pedersen just in time for the sprint
The Dane was joined by 19 riders: Kasper Asgreen (EF), Davide Ballerini, Harold Tejada (Astana), Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain), Michał Kwiatkowski, Joshua Tarling (INEOS), Ben O’Connor, Michael Matthews, Luke Plapp (Jayco), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), Biniam Girmay, Tom Van Asbroeck (MSN), Lars Craps (Lotto), Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama), Joris Delbove, Mattéo Vercher (Total), Robbe Dhondt (Picnic), Stefano Oldani and José Félix Parra (Caja Rural).
And so we had 57 riders on the attack, although Pedersen and his team had to work very hard to keep the gap to the front manageable. For the first two hours, the average speed was 53 kilometres per hour, causing some riders to drop back to the group with Pedersen. At the front, Q36.5 – chasing the stage win and the general classification with Pidcock – and Alpecin – chasing the green jersey for Philipsem – kept the pace high. At 25 kilometers from the sprint, they caught up after all, after which Philipsen won that hard-fought sprint.
Attacks in the breakaway on decisive Ballon d'Alsace
Meanwhile, a completely different race dynamic emerged. Pinarello-Q36.5 and TotalEnergies took control to secure a good position for Tom Pidcock—who by now was virtually on the podium—and Jordan Jegat, after which Bahrain Victorious felt compelled to take over from UAE Emirates-XRG in the peloton.
At the start of the Ballon d'Alsace, the decisive first-category climb, the gap was eight minutes. That is where the game really got going, as the saying goes. A few men at the front who had to drop off remarkably early were: Healy, Grégoire, Campenaerts, Cort, O'Connor, and Aranburu.
The first attack came from Van Gils, who used it to create a new breakaway: Mohoric, O’Connor, Wellens, Valgren and Matthews, amongst others, were left behind in this thrilling pre-finale. Who remained? Plapp, Vauquelin, McNulty, Pidcock, Schmid, Braz Afonso, Jegat and Van Gils, who kept each other in a tight grip right up to the summit. Just before the summit, Wellens also joined the group.
On the descent, Tejada and Schmid made a clever breakaway, putting Jayco AlUla in a prime position. Behind them, Plapp managed to disrupt the collaboration somewhat, whilst his team-mate rode to the finish with his Colombian companion and beat him there. Pidcock finished third and has made good progress in the general classification.
Result Stage 13 of the 2026 Tour de France
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
David Bavin-HobbsChief Editor
David has been working in the sports & cycling industry for 16 years. Covering racing, business and technology, he has worked in communications for cycling companies, teams, and as a journalist. His proudest achievement is winning the first bike race he ever entered. He hasn't won a race since.
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