Pedersen posts maiden Tour stage win, Vingegaard keeps lead

SAINT-ETIENNE, France — Previous entire world winner Mads Pedersen attacked from the commence, then sent in type on the complete line to assert his first phase earn at the Tour de France on Friday.

Right after expending the day at the front, the a single-day classic specialist attacked from a team of six riders with 12 kilometers remaining and dropped three rivals on the street main to Saint-Etienne. He properly timed his closing go about 250 meters from the finish to depart his two remaining opponents in his wake with a powerful burst of pace.

Fred Wright of Britain was 2nd and Hugo Houle of Canada finished the phase podium.

Pedersen was crowned planet champion in 2019. He also received Gent-Wevelgem two decades back but experienced in no way tasted victory in a Grand Tour.

“I at last just take the gain I was hunting for,” Pedersen reported. “Coming to the Tour, I understood my condition was great but I missed the prospects in the 1st 7 days. I took my likelihood currently. It is truly great to get the reward.”

It’s a really profitable Tour for Danish riders, who have posted three stage wins given that the start of the race in Copenhagen in addition to the yellow jersey taken by Jonas Vingegaard this week.

“I guess it is super pleasant to be a Danish person at the second,” Vingegaard reported.

Subsequent two brutal days of racing in the Alps, Vingegaard relished a tranquil day in the pack, very well shielded by his Jumbo-Visma teammates.

Two-time defending winner Pogacar, who gave absent the legendary tunic in the very first significant mountain phase at the Col du Granon, did not test everything to unsettle Vingegaard all through the 193-kilometer Stage 13 which started off in Le Bourg d’Oisans.

Their fight is anticipated to resume up coming 7 days in the skinny air of the Pyrenees mountains prior to the race finishes in Paris in nine times.

Overall, Vingegaard prospects Pogacar by two minutes, 22 seconds. The 2018 champion Geraint Thomas was third, 2:26 off the rate.

Pedersen was the 1st attacker of the working day amid a flurry of unsuccessful moves on large sections of road. A team of three riders finally went obvious in the the shorter côte de Brié climb.

Two-time time demo environment winner Filippo Ganna was to start with at the prime forward of Stefan Kung and Matteo Jorgenson.

The trio was joined by Pedersen, Houle, Quinn Simmons and Wright.

They opened a hole of about two minutes as the peloton of main contenders seemed content to enable them go immediately after a frenetic opening hour of racing.

Sprinters’ groups, even so, remained vigilant and made absolutely sure the breakaway’s direct did not expand much too significantly.

Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lotto Soudal joined forces to established a strong speed till Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan missed a convert and crashed. The incident changed the dynamics of the stage, due to the fact Lotto-Soudal riders waited for their teammate, leaving the duty of the chase to others.

Back again on his bicycle, Ewan located shelter guiding a team’s vehicle and steadily manufactured his way back again but the Cote de Saint-Romain-en-Gal climb proved much too hard and the diminutive rider was finally dropped.

The breakaway group prolonged its lead to 3:30 until Workforce BikeExchange-Jayco riders made a decision to pull the peloton for ace sprinter Dylan Groenewegen. But it was way too small too late and they gave up the chase the moment they understood they would never close the hole.