Tour de France: Mauro Schmid outduels Harold Tejada in two-rider matchup at the line on stage 13

A general view of the peloton at the start from Dole for stage 13, the longest stage at 205.8km (Image credit: Getty Images)

The longest stage of the 2026 Tour de France made stage 13 a day for the breakaway, and rather than the typical escape group, a massive group of riders went clear thanks to the presence of teammates of all the top contenders, barring Paul Seixas in the move.

Between the size of the breakaway and a brisk tailwind, the stage was another fast one, with an average speed of 51.45 kph even with the category 1 Ballon d’Alsace featuring in the final 40km.

It all started just a few kilometres from the start in Dole, with 205.8 kilometres between the peloton and the finish in Belfort. The first escape formed with Michał Kwiatkowski (Netcompany Ineos), Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep), Alex Kirsch (Cofidis) and Georg Zimmermann (Lotto-Intermarché), but they were caught after 25 kilometres.

Breakaway effort by (L-R) Louis Vervaecke of Soudal Quick-Step, Kasper Asgreen of EF Education – EasyPost and Michal Kwiatkowski of Netcompany Ineos (Image credit: Getty Images)

Fred Wright (Pinarello-Q36.5) sparked a much larger group to go clear, and so many riders followed that Decathlon CMA CGM and Soudal-QuickStep were the only teams to miss the move.

With high-powered riders such as Brandon McNulty and Tim Wellens from Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, Victor Campenaerts and Per Strand Hagenes for Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team, and Tim Van Dijke and Maxim Van Gils from Remco Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe outfit, it was clear that this split would not be coming back.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) was the highest placed among the attackers in 10th overall, but he wasn’t too much of a threat, 11:49 behind Pogačar. The Briton had three teammates for company and pulled out such a large lead that all of the other GC contenders had to worry.

The presence of Jasper Philipsen in the attack raised alarm bells within the Lidl-Trek team, and the size of the escape and the number of teams already in it meant they got very little help in chasing down what was a 40-second gap.

They had almost given up when a counter-attack came that included Biniam Girmay (NSN). It was then that green jersey holder Pedersen took matters into his own hands and surged to join the chasers. While the sprinters might not survive the Ballon d’Alsace, there was an intermediate sprint with 68km to go where Pedersen needed to score points.

Mads Pedersen takes second-place intermediate sprint points ahead of Biniam Girmay on stage 13 (Image credit: Getty Images)

After bridging to the 20-rider Girmay group, Pedersen pushed the pace for the better part of an hour, finally making contact with the leaders with 90km to go. Now 57 riders strong, the lead group had almost seven minutes on the maillot jaune.

Philipsen hit out hard to take the points at the sprint in Mélisey, but Pedersen managed to hold off Girmay for second and only ceded five points to the Belgian.

The lead group began to shrink before the Col des Croix, but was still quite large as they crested the summit, holding 8:10 on the peloton.

On the Ballon d’Alsace ascent, Team Jayco AlUla team’s Luke Plapp (R), Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team’s Tom Pidcock (C) and Team Jayco AlUla’s Mauro Schmid ride together (Image credit: Getty Images)

With Pidcock threatening the place of Lenny Martinez, Bahrain-Victorious began working in the bunch alongside UAE Team Emirates-XRG to limit the breakaway’s advantage, but with eight minutes, the Briton was threatening everyone except Pogačar.

As the leaders began to ascend the Ballon d’Alsace, an attack from Tudor’s Rick Pluimers was just the excuse the sprinters needed to sit up, and Girmay, Philipsen and Pedersen made a rapid exit.

Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos) countered the move, but his acceleration had more impact on the back of the group than the front. There were only 20 riders left as Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked with 34km to go and 4km to the summit of Ballon d’Alsace.

Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling competes in the breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)

Pidcock shut the move down but the damage was done – with only ten riders left, Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) attacked and the Briton had no immediate response. However, a steady tempo and an easing of the gradient and Plapp was back in the fold.

With the summit just 800 metres away, Pidcock accelerated hard but still could not dislodge anyone bar Clément Braz (Groupama-FDJ), and went over the top with Plapp and teammate Mauro Schmid, Van Gils, Vauquelin, Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), and McNulty in tow and 8:30 on the maillot jaune.

On the descent, Braz and Tim Wellens rejoined, bringing the group back to 10.

As the road flattened, Tejada and Schmid went clear with just over 15km to go and gained 20 seconds over the Pidcock group.

In the finale, Schmid was able to hold off Tejada to deliver an important victory for himself and his team.

Place

Rider (Country) Team

Result

1

Mauro Schmid (Swi) Jayco-AlUla

04:06:58

2

Harold Tejada (Col) XDS Astana

Row 1 – Cell 2

3

Tom Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5

00:00:02

4

Maxim Van Gils (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

Row 3 – Cell 2

5

Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Row 4 – Cell 2

6

Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers

Row 5 – Cell 2

7

Jordan Jegat (Fra) Totalenergies

Row 6 – Cell 2

8

Clément Braz Afonso (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United

Row 7 – Cell 2

9

Tim Wellens (Bel) UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Row 8 – Cell 2

10

Lucas Plapp (Aus) Jayco-AlUla

00:00:11

Swipe to scroll horizontallyGC top 10 after stage 13

Place

Rider (Country) Team

Result

1

Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG

47:18:31

2

Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike

00:03:36

3

Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

00:04:06

4

Tom Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5

00:04:15

5

Juan Ayuso (Spa) Lidl-Trek

00:04:22

6

Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM

00:04:35

7

Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

00:04:44

8

Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG

00:05:08

9

Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek

00:05:45

10

Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious

00:06:34