Pedersen sprints to victory in Saint-Etienne | Cycling

After the finish on the ‘Dutch’ Alpe d’Huez on Thursday afternoon, there was another Dutch touch to the Tour day at the start of stage 13. Taco van der Hoorn rode ahead with the first group of five escapees, but the first ‘escapers’ of the day didn’t get really long.

Charged

On the first climb of the day, the Cote de Brié, Van der Hoorn’s group was caught and not much later a new group of seven leaders formed. Among them Jumbo-Visma rider Stefan Küng, Pedersen, Filippo Ganna and Wright. The American Matteo Jorgenson had to release from the group due to material problems, but the Movistar rider eventually rejoined.

After Ganna took in the first two mountain points of the day on the Cote de Brié, Pedersen came in first on climb number 2: the Col de Parménie. At seventy kilometers from the finish, the peloton was startled by a serious crash, in which the Lotto-Soudal team in particular was the victim. It cost Caleb Ewan the chance for daytime success. The sprinter stayed at the side of the road for a while and in the sequel was unable to drive towards the leading group.

Three men left

At 45 kilometers from the finish Quinn Simmons was released from the leading group, which drove towards Saint-Étienne where it was no less than 35 degrees on Friday afternoon. With ten kilometers to go, Pedersen attacked, and that was too powerful for Ganna and Küng. Houle and Wright were able to follow, which resulted in a final between three sprinters. The last hundreds of meters to the finish line were just right for Pedersen.

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