2026 Tour de France Stage 13 Report: Dole→Belfort—A 57-Rider Breakaway and a Ten-Man Elimination Race on the Côte

Stage 13 of the 2026 Tour de France was the longest day of this edition. On July 17, the peloton departed from Dole, at the foot of the Jura, and cut northeast into the Vosges mountains, arriving in Belfort after 205.8 kilometers. There was no mountaintop finish, no time trial, and the top three on the general classification didn’t see their times change by even a single second—yet it was still one of the stages most worthy of a kilometer-by-kilometer breakdown: a massive 57-rider breakaway, a rescue mission personally driven by the green jersey, a first-category climb that whittled the break from 57 riders down to 10, and a two-man duel over the final 15 kilometers.

Here is the complete account of the day.

Stage File: The Longest Day of This Edition

Let’s lay out the numbers first.

Item	Data
Stage	2026 Tour de France, Stage 13
Date	July 17, 2026 (Friday)
Route	Dole → Belfort
Distance	205.8 km (longest of this edition)
Stage Type	Hilly stage
Total Climbing	Approx. 2,300–2,450 m
Official Start	13:20 local time
Categorized Climbs	Col des Croix (Cat. 3), Ballon d’Alsace (Cat. 1)
Intermediate Sprint	Mélisey (km 137.8)
Average Temperature	Approx. 28°C
Winner’s Average Speed	49.999 km/h per ProCyclingStats; 51.45 km/h overall average per Cyclingnews
Stage Winner	Mauro SCHMID (TEAM JAYCO ALULA), 4h 06’ 58"

Covering 205.8 kilometers in just over four hours means the day’s average speed hovered around 50 km/h—and that’s with a first-category climb packed into the route. That figure is exceptional even by Tour de France standards, for three main reasons: first, the breakaway was large enough to form its own mini-peloton rotating turns; second, there was a pronounced tailwind; and third, the main peloton was pushed hard for nearly an hour in the first half by the green jersey battle.

Stage winner Mauro Schmid himself put it best at the finish: “It was a very hard day from the start, full gas from the first minute.” He also mentioned that his team, Jayco-AlUla, had been targeting the breakaway all day, having tried and failed several times in previous days, and finally succeeded on this one.

Departing from Pasteur’s Hometown: A Geography Lesson on Dole and the Jura Foothills

Dole sits at the foot of the Jura mountains in eastern France. It is the birthplace of Louis Pasteur, the father of microbiology, and an old friend of the Tour de France. Surrounded by hills and blessed with a pleasant climate, the town’s local riders train on rolling roads year-round. In 1939, French rider Maurice Archambaud won an individual time trial held here; in 2017, when the Tour fought through the Jura, Lilian Calmejane took the victory, showcasing the difficulty of the local terrain.

Leaving Dole, the first 130 kilometers are essentially “false flat.” The route heads north along the Saône river basin and the agricultural belt of the Franche-Comté region, with wide roads, few bends, and open views, interrupted only by occasional small rollers. This is exactly why the average speed could climb above 50 km/h—this terrain is extremely favorable for a large peloton rotating turns and extremely unfavorable for anyone trying to ride solo.

The real terrain shift comes after kilometer 130. The road begins to climb into the southern edge of the Vosges, a mountain range with a completely different character from the Alps. The Vosges are an ancient granite massif, rounded by long erosion, known in French as “Ballon” (meaning dome); its highest point, the Grand Ballon, reaches just 1,424 meters. There are no thousand-meter vertical walls like in the Alps; instead, it offers a rhythm of “one climb after another, moderate gradients but no flat sections to catch your breath”—dense forests, narrow roads, and shifting winds, a classic “death by a thousand cuts” mountain range.

The finish city of Belfort is another historic stronghold. It guards the only lowland gap between the Vosges and the Jura—the Belfort Gap (Trouée de Belfort)—which for two millennia has been the必经之路 for armies, caravans, railways, and roads. Descending from the Ballon d’Alsace into Belfort means charging from the mountains straight into this historic crossroads; the final 15 kilometers are almost completely flat, a pure sprinting battleground.

Pre-Race Situation: Pogačar’s 3’36" Lead and the Undercurrents of Four Jerseys

On the morning of Stage 13, the general classification looked like this:

• Yellow Jersey: Tadej Pogačar (UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG), total time 43h 04’ 01"
• 2nd: Jonas Vingegaard (TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE), +3’ 36"
• 3rd: Remco Evenepoel (RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE), +4’ 06"
• 4th: Juan Ayuso (LIDL-TREK), +4’ 22", also wearing the white jersey
• 5th: Paul Seixas (DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM), +4’ 35"
• 6th: Florian Lipowitz (RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE), +4’ 44"
• 7th: Isaac del Toro (UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG), +5’ 08"

Pogačar had reclaimed the yellow jersey with a long-range solo attack on Stage 6 at the Col du Tourmalet, then added another blow on Stage 10 (Bastille Day, Le Lioran), pushing the gap past three and a half minutes. For him, the task on Stage 13 was simple: don’t get into trouble.

Indeed, Cyclingnews put it bluntly—before entering the Alps, Pogačar intended to take it easy on this 205.8-kilometer marathon, as long as the breakaway stayed within a distance that didn’t threaten the yellow jersey. This “strategic release” was the starting point for everything that happened that day.

The other three jerseys:

• Green Jersey: Mads Pedersen (LIDL-TREK) held a steady lead, but Jasper Philipsen (ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH) and Biniam Girmay (NSN CYCLING TEAM) were both still within range.
• Polka Dot Jersey: Pogačar led the points, but since he wore yellow, the polka dot jersey was worn by second-placed Vingegaard (as was the case from Stages 7 to 14).
• White Jersey: Ayuso led, with Seixas and del Toro in pursuit.
• Teams: LIDL-TREK led the team classification.

Route Technical Analysis: Two Hundred Kilometers of Flat, Plus Two Climbs at the End

The design logic of this route is very “organizer-style”: all the difficulty is packed into the final 50 kilometers.

First Climb: Col des Croix

• Location: km 157.4
• Summit Elevation: 678 m
• Length: approx. 5.2 km
• Average Gradient: 4.8%
• Category: 3

This is a warm-up climb. Less than 5 kilometers at under 5% average gradient is just a small bump to push the heart rate to threshold for the pros. Its real purpose is screening—when the breakaway has 50-plus riders, this kind of climb is enough to start dropping pure sprinters and domestiques who have already burned their matches.

Second Climb: Ballon d’Alsace

• Location: km 175.8 (approx. 29 km from the finish)
• Summit Elevation: 1,173 m
• Length: approx. 8.8–8.9 km
• Average Gradient: 6.9%
• Category: 1

This is the real gate. 8.8 kilometers at 6.9%, with a total ascent of about 610 meters, is the kind of climb that “won’t blow you up, but will leave nothing in your legs at the summit.” Its gradient distribution is remarkably even, with no brutal sections over 10%, which means rhythm climbers (those who can sustain high output for a long time) are far better suited than explosive attackers.

Final 29 Kilometers: From the summit, there’s a descent of about 14 kilometers, followed by 15 kilometers of flat road straight into Belfort. The average gradient over the final kilometer is just 0.9%, essentially a pure flat sprint. This configuration dictated the day’s script—anyone soloing over the Ballon had almost no chance of holding to the finish, because there were 15 flat kilometers behind for the chasers to organize a rotation. To win, you either needed a numerical advantage off the back of the climb, or you had to survive to a small-group sprint.

The Ballon d’Alsace: A Mountain Written into Tour de France History

This mountain deserves a bit more attention.

The Ballon d’Alsace holds a uniquely special place in Tour de France history: it was the first true mountain pass ever included in the Tour’s route. In 1905, race director Henri Desgrange put the mountain on the map for the first time, a move considered unbelievably audacious in that era—riders were on single-speed steel bikes, and many walked their bikes up. From that moment on, this mountain became the symbolic starting point of the Tour’s “mountain era.”

From 1905 to the present, the Ballon d’Alsace has appeared on the Tour route dozens of times. It doesn’t feature as frequently as the Tourmalet or Alpe d’Huez, but every time it appears, it carries a ceremonial sense of “returning to the origin.” In 2026, it was even featured on two consecutive days: climbed from the south on Stage 13, then from the other side on Stage 14.

For the riders, the difficulty of the Ballon isn’t the gradient—it’s the position. The 29 kilometers remaining is an awkward number: too far for a solo move to stick, too close to open a decisive gap. It forces riders to make the “do I gamble?” decision on the climb, and that’s precisely what makes this kind of route design so compelling.

Race Report (Part 1): The First Move at 25 km and the Breakaway Ignited by Fred Wright

The moment the flag dropped, the attacks began.

Within a few kilometers of leaving Dole, the first break took shape: Michał Kwiatkowski (NETCOMPANY INEOS), Kasper Asgreen (EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST), Louis Vervaeke (SOUDAL QUICK-STEP), Alex Kirsch (COFIDIS), and Georg Zimmermann (LOTTO INTERMARCHE).

These five were swallowed up after 25 kilometers.

The real detonation came from Fred Wright (PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM). His acceleration brought a huge group of riders with him—so huge that only two teams in the entire peloton, DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM and SOUDAL QUICK-STEP, had no one in it.

The composition of this group was the key. It included:

• Two of Pogačar’s lieutenants: Brandon McNulty and Tim Wellens (UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG)
• Two of Vingegaard’s lieutenants: Victor Campenaerts and Per Strand Hagenes (TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE)
• Two of Evenepoel’s lieutenants: Tim Van Dijke and Maxim Van Gils (RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE)

When the top three riders on GC each sent two high-output riders into the breakaway, that break became impossible to chase down—no team had any incentive to chase its own teammates.

The highest-placed rider on GC in the group was Tom Pidcock (PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM), then 10th overall, 11’ 49" behind Pogačar. He had three teammates protecting him. An 11’ 49" cushion was theoretically no threat to the yellow jersey, but it was a threat to everyone in the top ten—a seed that would fully detonate in the afternoon.

Race Report (Part 2): The Green Jersey’s Self-Rescue—Pedersen Chased for an Hour

The most underrated segment of the day was the green jersey Pedersen’s self-rescue mission.

When the breakaway formed, Philipsen was in it. Pedersen was not. That was a red alert for LIDL-TREK: the intermediate sprint was at Mélisey, km 137.8, and if Philipsen took maximum points from the break while Pedersen sat in the peloton, he could lose 20 points or more in a single day.

The problem was that the break was already 40 seconds up, and with so many teams represented, LIDL-TREK could barely call on any help. At one point, they were close to giving up.

The turning point came with a counter-attack: Girmay launched a group from the peloton. Pedersen made a split-second decision—he took matters into his own hands, accelerating to bridge up to this 20-rider chase group.

Then he did something sprinters rarely do: he personally pulled at the front for nearly an hour.

Cyclingnews described how, after bridging to Girmay’s group, Pedersen “spent most of the time driving the pace at the front,” finally making contact with the breakaway with 90 kilometers to go. After the merger, the lead group swelled to 57 riders, with a lead of nearly 7 minutes over the yellow jersey group.

The result at the Mélisey sprint: Philipsen took maximum points (25), Pedersen held on for second (20), and Girmay was third (16).

Pedersen lost only 5 points. In terms of the outcome, he traded an hour of high-intensity output for 15 points of damage control—by the end of the day, his green jersey total was 377 points, leading Philipsen (336) by 41, with Girmay (333) third. This “invisible victory” was one of the keys to him eventually wearing the green jersey all the way to Paris.

Race Report (Part 3): The Ten-Rider Elimination Race on the Ballon

After the Col des Croix, the lead group was still massive, with an advantage of 8’ 10" over the peloton.

In the main group, the situation was getting delicate. Pidcock’s virtual GC position was climbing steadily, threatening Lenny Martinez’s (BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS) spot, so BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS began working with UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG at the front of the peloton. But 8 minutes was simply too much—Pidcock threatened everyone except Pogačar.

As the Ballon d’Alsace climb began, the elimination race officially started.

The first move came from Rick Pluimers of Tudor (TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM). His attack conveniently gave the sprinters a “legitimate excuse” to back off—Girmay, Philipsen, and Pedersen immediately eased up and dropped out, saving their legs for the stages ahead.

Kévin Vauquelin (NETCOMPANY INEOS) countered, but his acceleration did far more damage to the tail of the group than to the front.

When the lead group was down to 20 riders, Maxim Van Gils (RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE) attacked with 34 kilometers to go, 4 kilometers from the summit of the Ballon. Pidcock personally shut that move down, but the damage was done—the group was down to 10 riders.

Then Luke Plapp (TEAM JAYCO ALULA) attacked, and this time Pidcock didn’t respond immediately. However, as the gradient eased and the group settled into a steady rhythm, Plapp was brought back.

With just 800 meters to the summit, Pidcock launched a full-gas acceleration. It only managed to drop one rider—Clément Braz Afonso (GROUPAMA-FDJ UNITED). Over the top, he still had Plapp, Schmid, Van Gils, Vauquelin, Jordan Jegat (TOTALENERGIES), Harold Tejada (XDS ASTANA TEAM), and McNulty with him. At that point, the lead over the yellow jersey group was 8’ 30".

The KOM points on the Ballon went to Pidcock (10), with Schmid taking 8, Van Gils 6, Plapp 4, Vauquelin 2, and Jegat 1.

Race Report (Part 4): The Two-Man Escape in the Final 15 Kilometers

On the descent, Braz Afonso and Wellens fought their way back, and the lead group was back to 10 riders.

Once the road flattened out, the decisive move came. With just over 15 kilometers to the finish, Tejada and Schmid went together, quickly opening a 20-second gap.

On flat roads, that 20 seconds was actually very fragile—there were 8 riders behind who could organize a rotation. But the key was that none of those 8 was a pure rouleur, and Pidcock had bigger things to calculate: he needed to protect his 4-second bonus for third place and his GC position, not win the stage. So while the chase group pushed hard, they always fell just short.

For the final two-man duel, Schmid gave a complete account of the details afterward.

He said he started cramping slightly with 4 kilometers to go, which worried him; at 2 kilometers, he deliberately dropped to the back, hoping Tejada would launch first. But in the end, Tejada forced him to take the front. He felt he started his sprint slightly too late, and for the first 50 meters, the thought flashed through his mind, “not again, like last year”—last year he’d finished second in a nearly identical situation. But when the finish line came into view, he said he “found his legs again,” and then he went.

Schmid, 4h 06’ 58", his first career Tour de France stage win, and TEAM JAYCO ALULA’s first victory of the 2026 Tour.

Tejada, same time, second.

Two seconds later, Pidcock led the chase group across the line for third, pocketing the 4-second bonus. He said afterward, pragmatically: “I’m definitely going to lose a lot of time in the time trial, that’s for sure. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. I think we definitely earned the respect of everyone chasing hard behind us today. The next few days are all about GC, so we’ll give it everything.”

The main peloton was led across the line by Quinn Simmons (LIDL-TREK), 7’ 32" down. There was no fireworks from the GC group on the Ballon d’Alsace—Pogačar got the easy day he wanted.

Analysis of the Top Ten

1. Mauro SCHMID (TEAM JAYCO ALULA) 4:06:58
A Swiss all-rounder with a background in both cyclocross and road. His defining trait is “still being able to sprint after four hours of high intensity,” which is the core skill of breakaway racing. Last year’s second place had become a mental demon; this year, he exorcised it in almost the exact same script.

2. Harold TEJADA CANACUE (XDS ASTANA TEAM) same time
A Colombian climber who showcased his underrated flat-road ability today—he was the one who initiated this two-man escape. Losing the sprint wasn’t a surprise, but he put himself into the final two of the breakaway.

3. Tom PIDCOCK (PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM) +2"
The real big winner of the day. The 4-second bonus for third, plus the 8-plus-minute cushion, vaulted him from 10th overall to 4th, 4’ 15" behind Pogačar, just 9 seconds off the podium.

4. Maxim VAN GILS (RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE) +2"
One of the most aggressive attackers on the Ballon. His move cut the group from 20 to 10, making him the day’s most thorough “sacrificial lamb” for others.

5. Brandon MCNULTY (UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG) +2"
Pogačar’s top mountain domestique being in the final ten of the breakaway was itself the best proof of UAE’s “day off” strategy.

6. Kévin VAUQUELIN (NETCOMPANY INEOS) +2"
A French home hope who countered once on the climb. His problem was timing—his attack came when the group was already splintered, diluting its impact.

7. Jordan JEGAT (TOTALENERGIES) +2"
A young GC rider from a French team who held on to the final ten, laying the foundation for his later push into the GC top ten.

8. Clément BRAZ AFONSO (GROUPAMA-FDJ UNITED) +2"
The only rider dropped by Pidcock in the final 800 meters of the Ballon, yet he fought back on the descent—that kind of resilience is worth its weight in gold at the Tour.

9. Tim WELLENS (UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG) +2"
Bridged back with Braz Afonso on the descent; UAE had two riders in the top ten from this breakaway.

10. Luke PLAPP (TEAM JAYCO ALULA) +11"
He attacked, got caught, but his move created space for teammate Schmid. JAYCO’s two-pronged setup bore fruit.

Full Top 30 Results

Rank	Rider	Team	Time/Gap
1	Mauro SCHMID	TEAM JAYCO ALULA	4:06:58
2	Harold TEJADA CANACUE	XDS ASTANA TEAM	same time
3	Tom PIDCOCK	PINARELLO-Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM	+2"
4	Maxim VAN GILS	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+2"
5	Brandon MCNULTY	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	+2"
6	Kévin VAUQUELIN	NETCOMPANY INEOS CYCLING TEAM	+2"
7	Jordan JEGAT	TOTALENERGIES	+2"
8	Clément BRAZ AFONSO	GROUPAMA-FDJ UNITED	+2"
9	Tim WELLENS	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	+2"
10	Luke PLAPP	TEAM JAYCO ALULA	+11"
11	Raul GARCIA PIERNA	MOVISTAR TEAM	+57"
12	Michael VALGREN	EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST	+59"
13	Michael MATTHEWS	TEAM JAYCO ALULA	+1:01
14	Nicolas BREUILLARD	TOTALENERGIES	+1:01
15	Marc HIRSCHI	TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM	+1:01
16	George BENNETT	NSN CYCLING TEAM	+1:01
17	Lars CRAPS	LOTTO INTERMARCHE	+1:01
18	Ion IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI	COFIDIS	+1:03
19	Ben O’CONNOR	TEAM JAYCO ALULA	+1:08
20	Magnus CORT NIELSEN	UNO-X MOBILITY	+2:23
21	Alex ARANBURU DEVA	COFIDIS	+2:23
22	Jose Felix PARRA CUERDA	CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA	+2:23
23	Rick PLUIMERS	TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM	+2:23
24	Emiel VERSTRYNGE	ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH	+2:25
25	Robbe DHONDT	TEAM PICNIC POSTNL	+3:19
26	Romain GREGOIRE	GROUPAMA-FDJ UNITED	+3:19
27	Joris DELBOVE	TOTALENERGIES	+3:19
28	Nicolya VINOKUROV	XDS ASTANA TEAM	+5:54
29	Benjamin THOMAS	COFIDIS	+5:54
30	Matteo VERCHER	TOTALENERGIES	+5:54

The most fascinating thing about this table is the chasm after 11th place. Plapp in 10th was only 11 seconds back, but Raul Garcia Pierna (MOVISTAR TEAM) in 11th was already 57 seconds down. That 46-second void is the physical reality created by those 8.8 kilometers of the Ballon d’Alsace: the top 10 were the survivors of the same elimination race; everyone from 11th on was in a different world.

Changes in the Four Leader Jerseys and Points Details

Yellow Jersey (GC)—The top three stage finishers received no time bonuses (the stage offered 10/6/4 seconds, but only to the top three, none of whom were GC contenders), so the gaps among the top three didn’t move at all: Pogačar 47h 18’ 31", Vingegaard +3’ 36", Evenepoel +4’ 06".

The real changes were in 4th through 10th:

Rank	Rider	Team	Gap
1	Tadej POGACAR	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	47:18:31
2	Jonas VINGEGAARD	TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE	+3:36
3	Remco EVENEPOEL	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+4:06
4	Tom PIDCOCK	PINARELLO-Q36.5	+4:15
5	Juan AYUSO	LIDL-TREK	+4:22
6	Paul SEIXAS	DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM	+4:35
7	Florian LIPOWITZ	RED BULL - BORA - HANSGROHE	+4:44
8	Isaac DEL TORO	UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG	+5:08
9	Mattias SKJELMOSE	LIDL-TREK	+5:45
10	Lenny MARTINEZ	BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS	+6:34

Pidcock jumped from 10th to 4th, compressing an 11’ 49" deficit to 4’ 15" in a single day. It was the most dramatic single-day GC shift of this Tour.

Green Jersey (Sprint Points)—Pedersen 377, Philipsen 336, Girmay 333. Gap: 41 points.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains)—Pogačar 42, Vingegaard 27, Richard Carapaz (EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST) 19, Pidcock 18. With his 10 points on the Ballon, Pidcock vaulted from 13th to 4th on the KOM standings. Since Pogačar wore yellow, the polka dot jersey was actually worn by Vingegaard.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider)—Ayuso kept it, leading Seixas by 13 seconds and del Toro by 46.

Teams—LIDL-TREK continued to lead, with UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG 9’ 18" behind. Best team of the day: TEAM JAYCO ALULA.

Most Combative Award: Tom PIDCOCK.

Team Tactics Review: Who Won and Who Lost the Day

TEAM JAYCO ALULA — Biggest winners. They set a clear pre-race goal of “getting the whole team into the break” and used a two-pronged insurance policy: Schmid (sprint-oriented all-rounder) + Plapp (a diesel engine who can climb and pull). Plapp’s attack on the Ballon burned Pidcock’s response, while Schmid conserved energy behind; in the end, Schmid won, Plapp was 10th, Matthews 13th, and O’Connor 19th—four riders in the top 20. Textbook breakaway management.

PINARELLO-Q36.5 — Strategic victory. Wright ignited the break, three teammates shielded Pidcock, and Pidcock took third with a 4-second bonus. From 10th to 4th, for a ProTeam, this is a day to write into the annual report. The only question: how long can this position hold? Pidcock knows the answer himself—he said outright afterward that he’ll lose time in the time trial.

UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG — Precise “inaction.” McNulty and Wellens in the break meant two pieces were already placed up the road, so the peloton didn’t need to chase. Pogačar made no unnecessary moves all day, carrying his legs intact into the next day’s high-mountain Vosges stage. This is the standard playbook for a defending champion managing a three-week race.

LIDL-TREK — Damage control successful. They were nearly ambushed in the green jersey war, but Pedersen’s own hour of high-intensity riding made up for it. The cost was Pedersen’s legs the next day, but the trade was worth it.

TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE — Neutral. Campenaerts and Hagenes were in the break, and Vingegaard got through safely. The only concern: they kept contributing to the pace in Pidcock’s group. Cyclingnews noted that even after the lead group had opened over a minute, three Visma teammates were still pulling—this was to control Pidcock, but it also meant they spent some bullets they might need the next day.

DECATHLON CMA CGM and SOUDAL QUICK-STEP — The only two teams to miss the break. For teams aiming for stage wins, this was a pure lost day. DECATHLON, Seixas’s team, had it worse: a full day with no one up front meant no tactical leverage whatsoever.

Rider Stories: Schmid, Tejada, and Pidcock

Mauro Schmid—Swiss, from a road-and-cyclocross training background, he emerged at an Italian stage race in 2020 before moving to the WorldTour. He’s always been the kind of rider who “can do a bit of everything, but always falls just short”: not pure enough as a climber, not fast enough as a sprinter, not strong enough as a time trialist. But mix all three into a four-hour breakaway, and he’s among the best in the world. Last year, he lost the sprint in nearly the same script, and that image had clearly been replaying in his head. This time, he cramped, hesitated, started too late—and still won. That’s what makes this victory so compelling.

Harold Tejada Canacue—Colombian, a classic South American climber’s development path. But today he showed a neglected side of himself: he could trade turns with a sprint-oriented all-rounder on 15 kilometers of flat road without cracking. He lost the sprint, but he won a global reassessment of his flat-road abilities.

Tom Pidcock—British, cyclocross world champion, Olympic mountain bike gold medalist, and a Classics specialist. His Tour career has been stuck in the awkward position of “not consistent enough for GC, and always beaten to the punch on stages.” After moving to PINARELLO-Q36.5 in 2026, he finally got full team leadership, and Stage 13 was the payoff for that decision. He knows his time trialing is a weakness, so his strategy is crystal clear: steal every second he can on the days when time is available. That’s the only viable path for a small team challenging the big squads.

Impact on the Stages Ahead

On the surface, Stage 13 “nothing happened,” but in reality, it rewrote the script for the next three days.

First, Pidcock became a target that had to be defended. He went from 10th to 4th, just 9 seconds off the podium. That meant from Stage 14 onward, any breakaway containing him would force UAE and Visma to calculate the distance. In fact, on Stage 14 he did join a 38-rider breakaway, briefly rising to virtual 2nd; precisely because of that, UAE had to put Nils Politt on the front to control the pace all day, unable to simply let the break go like on Stage 13.

Second, Pogačar saved an entire day’s energy. He made almost no effort above threshold all day, and the next day he launched a solo attack with 7.2 kilometers to go on the Col du Haag, taking his 4th stage win of the Tour and stretching his GC lead to 4’ 30". The “inaction” of Stage 13 was directly converted into attacking power on Stage 14.

Third, the success of the breakaway changed the battlefield atmosphere for the following days. Two consecutive days of massive breakaways (57 riders on Stage 13, 38 on Stage 14) made every team realize: the “non-mountaintop finish days” of this edition were there for the taking. Stage 15 saw another 23-rider break, and Stages 18 and 20 saw Carapaz take two stage wins from breaks—that collective belief that “a break can win” was established starting from this day in Belfort.

Fourth, the rhythm of the green jersey war was set. Pedersen protected his 41-point lead today, but Philipsen proved that “getting into the break means banking points.” On the intermediate sprints of Stages 14 and 15, Philipsen took maximum points both days, clawing the gap down to 31 points. The first shot of that tug-of-war was fired at Mélisey.

Deep Dive: How Did 50 km/h Happen?

The day’s average speed deserves its own breakdown, because it overturns many people’s intuition that “long stage = slow.”

ProCyclingStats recorded Schmid’s average speed as 49.999 km/h; Cyclingnews reported the overall race average as 51.45 km/h (the two use different methodologies—the former divides the winner’s finish time by the official distance, the latter uses the organizer’s published overall average). Either way, it far exceeds what anyone would expect from a “205-kilometer hilly stage.”

There are four layers to the explanation:

Layer 1: Terrain. The first 130 kilometers were almost entirely gentle gradients and flat roads along the Saône valley, with excellent road surfaces and few bends. On this kind of road, a professional peloton’s cruising speed is naturally 45–50 km/h.

Layer 2: Wind. Cyclingnews explicitly mentioned a “brisk tailwind” that day. The contribution of a tailwind to speed is non-linear: at a 45 km/h cruise, a 15 km/h tailwind can boost speed by 8–12 km/h at the same power, or reduce the power required for the same speed by over 30%.

Layer 3: Group size. The lead group peaked at 57 riders, nearly a “mini-peloton.” Rotating turns at that scale means each rider’s actual load is 30–40% lower than riding solo, and very short rotation intervals can sustain an extremely high collective speed.

Layer 4: Chasing pressure. In the first half, LIDL-TREK was chasing for the green jersey; in the second half, BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS and UAE were chasing for Pidcock. When both the front and back groups are operating at full tilt, the entire race’s tempo gets pushed to the limit.

It’s worth noting that this edition of the Tour had already set the fastest road stage record in Tour history on Stage 11 (Vichy → Nevers) at 50.9 km/h. Stage 13, despite adding a first-category climb, was still in the same ballpark—which shows that the overall intensity of the 2026 edition is higher than many expected.

Power Estimate: For a professional rider of 65–70 kg, four hours in this kind of group would put normalized power (NP) at roughly 280–320 watts (4.0–4.6 W/kg), while the 20-plus minutes on the Ballon d’Alsace would push it above 400 watts (5.7–6.2 W/kg). In terms familiar to Taiwanese riders: the day’s average intensity was around 75–85% of your FTP, but with a 20-minute stretch in the fourth hour requiring 105–115% of FTP.

The Science of the Breakaway: Why a 57-Rider Escape Can Succeed

Casual fans might find a “57-rider breakaway” absurd—isn’t that just half the peloton riding off? But this is actually a very standard situation in the modern Tour, backed by rigorous game theory.

Condition 1: No direct threat to the yellow jersey in the break. Pidcock was 11’ 49" down. For Pogačar, even if Pidcock took everything, he’d still be far behind.

Condition 2: The main rivals’ teammates were all in it. This was the key of keys. UAE had McNulty and Wellens, Visma had Campenaerts and Hagenes, RED BULL had Van Dijke and Van Gils. Any team that came to chase would be chasing its own riders. When all three super-teams were “kidnapped,” the chase couldn’t be organized.

Condition 3: The distance was long enough. 205.8 kilometers meant that even releasing 8 minutes left plenty of time to pull some back if needed. In fact, the peloton did eventually reduce the gap from 8’ 30" to 7’ 32".

Condition 4: No mountaintop finish. If the finish had been on a summit, GC riders would have had the incentive to push hard on the final climb, and the break’s cushion would have been eaten up instantly. But this day ended on flat roads, so GC riders had zero reward for accelerating on the Ballon.

When all four conditions align, the breakaway becomes “the second race of the day”—it runs physically in parallel with the yellow jersey race, but tactically almost completely decoupled. That’s why stage winner Schmid and runner-up Tejada finished seven and a half minutes ahead of the peloton, yet had zero impact on GC.

Conversely, this also explains why the next day was completely different: Stage 14 had a mountaintop plateau finish, and Pidcock had already risen to 4th, just 9 seconds off the podium—three of the four conditions collapsed at once, forcing UAE to put Nils Politt on the front all day. The same riders, a different route design, produce a completely different race.

Belfort: The Finish at the Foot of the Lion

The finish city of Belfort deserves a mention.

Belfort’s most famous landmark is the “Lion of Belfort,” sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi—the same sculptor who later designed the Statue of Liberty. This 22-meter-long, 11-meter-high red sandstone lion crouches beneath the castle rock, commemorating the city’s 103-day siege resistance during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

For the Tour, Belfort is a familiar face. It sits in the Belfort Gap between the Vosges and the Jura, a natural bottleneck for north-south traffic in eastern France, so whenever the Tour schedules stages in this region, Belfort almost inevitably appears. The city blends Alsatian architectural vocabulary with Franche-Comté industrial heritage (Alstom and Peugeot factories are nearby), and walking its streets gives a sense of being at a Franco-German cultural crossroads.

From a racing perspective, Belfort’s finishing straight is wide with open sightlines, and the final kilometer has a gradient of just 0.9%—a standard “bunch sprint” finish. But there was no bunch sprint that day, because all the sprinters had voluntarily abandoned 30 kilometers earlier on the Ballon. This mismatch—“a sprint finish with no sprinters”—is precisely what makes mountain transition stages so fascinating.

Weather and Environment: 28 Degrees, Tailwind, and a Day in the Shadow of the Heatwave

The biggest environmental variable of the 2026 Tour wasn’t rain—it was heat.

Stage 4 (Carcassonne → Foix) was raced in temperatures around 40°C; Stage 9 was shortened by 30.9 kilometers due to a red heatwave alert in the Corrèze department; Pogačar himself publicly called on the Tour to reconsider its scheduling in response to increasingly extreme summer weather. By the final Stage 21, a wildfire in the Gironde department forced a police redeployment, shortening the stage from its planned 132.5 kilometers to 88.7.

Against that backdrop, Stage 13’s average of 28°C was actually “pleasant.” The Vosges’ geography provides a buffer—it lies west of the Rhine valley, and in summer, Atlantic airflow and orographic lifting often trigger afternoon convection clouds, keeping temperatures well below those of southern France.

But 28 degrees plus four hours at 50 km/h still demands staggering hydration. Professional riders in these conditions consume 700–1,000 ml per hour, totaling 3–4 liters over the day. That’s also why Schmid cramped with 4 kilometers to go—under prolonged high-intensity output, electrolyte loss and glycogen depletion approach their critical thresholds simultaneously, and cramping is often the first warning sign.

Another easily overlooked environmental factor is the change in wind direction. The first 130 kilometers were a tailwind, producing extreme speed; but once the route turned into the forested sections of the Vosges, the wind became turbulent—crosswinds between valleys, turbulence from the trees, and accelerated gusts at the passes changed the nature of the group’s energy expenditure. That’s another reason the lead group shrank rapidly after the Col des Croix: not just the gradient, but also the chaotic rhythm.

Three Turning Points: If It Were Run Again

Looking back at the race, three moments determined the final outcome.

Turning Point 1: Fred Wright’s acceleration (around km 25). Without this move, after the first five-man break was caught, the race would likely have unfolded with a small breakaway, and Pidcock’s opportunity wouldn’t have existed. Wright’s acceleration won him nothing personally, but it opened the door for his team leader to reach 4th on GC. That’s what they call an “unsung hero.”

Turning Point 2: Pedersen’s decision to chase himself (around km 60–90). This was the pivotal moment of the green jersey war. If he’d stayed in the peloton waiting for his teammates to organize, he would have lost at least 20 points that day, and with Philipsen taking maximum points over the next two days, the green jersey gap would have been compressed to under 10 points—a completely different competition.

Turning Point 3: Tejada and Schmid’s attack with 15 kilometers to go. The timing was precise: far enough to open 20 seconds, close enough that the 8 riders behind were psychologically already calculating their placings rather than organizing a chase. If they’d gone 5 kilometers later, they’d likely have been swallowed back into a 10-man sprint; if 5 kilometers earlier, the 20-second advantage would have been eaten up by the rotation on the flat.

None of these three moments happened on the Ballon d’Alsace, yet together they determined everything that happened after it. It’s a reminder: in road racing, the outcome is often written during the moments when “nothing seems to be happening.”

A Taiwanese Rider’s Perspective: Bringing the North-South Ride to the Alsace

Finally, let’s bring it back to our own roads.

What does 205.8 kilometers mean? For Taiwanese riders, this is roughly the scale of a “Taipei-Kaohsiung” ride (which is actually 350–380 km depending on route, so more precisely, 205 km is about a Taipei-Chiayi run, or a full loop of the Huadong Valley). And the pros did it in 4 hours 7 minutes—an average of 50 km/h. That number isn’t achieved through individual ability; it’s group aerodynamics: drafting in a group of 50+ riders reduces power demand by 30–40% compared to riding solo. That’s why Taiwan’s long-distance events (various century rides, double-crossing events) absolutely require learning to rotate turns in a group—it’s not social, it’s physics.

Does Taiwan have anything like the Ballon d’Alsace’s 8.8 km at 6.9%? Yes, quite a few:

• Fengguizui (Wanli/Gugong side): about 10 km at 5–6% average, similar length, slightly gentler gradient.
• Balaka Highway (Sanzhi to Erziping): length and average gradient are quite close, and it has the same “dense forest, many bends, no flat sections to rest” rhythm.
• Beiyi Highway (Pinglin to Shipai): slightly shorter, but the “steady, no rest” character is almost identical.

If you want to simulate the feeling of Stage 13’s final 50 kilometers, the closest training method is: first ride 150 kilometers in a flat group, then go straight up Fengguizui, and after the summit, hammer 15 kilometers of flat on your own. You’ll immediately understand why Schmid cramped with 4 kilometers to go.

Three training takeaways you can use directly:

1. Climbing after a long distance tests glycogen management, not FTP. Schmid cramped not because his legs weren’t strong enough, but because his total intake over the previous four hours couldn’t support that final anaerobic output. In long-distance events, treat “60–90 grams of carbs per hour” as a hard discipline, not something you do only when you feel hungry.

2. “Getting dropped on the climb doesn’t mean it’s over.” Braz Afonso was dropped in the final 800 meters of the Ballon, yet caught back on the descent and finished 8th. Many participants in Taiwan’s climbing events give up the moment they’re dropped, but as long as there’s a descent and flat road after the summit, the odds of catching back are far higher than you think—provided you stay within “visible distance.”

3. The best position for a sprint is second wheel. Schmid admitted he deliberately dropped to the back, hoping the other would launch first. In a two-man sprint, second wheel has an aerodynamic advantage of about 10–20%, and you control the timing of your launch. In Taiwan’s criteriums or small-group finishes, this principle applies perfectly.

One final observation: The most impressive rider of the day wasn’t the winner—it was green jersey Pedersen. On a stage completely unfavorable to sprinters, he voluntarily jumped into the fray and pulled for an hour, just to lose 15 fewer points. This mindset of “actively attacking to control losses even when the situation is unfavorable” is the true professional-level judgment. Next time you find yourself in a bad position during an event, think about that hour.

Practical Workouts for Taiwanese Riders: Simulating Stage 13

If you want to bring the training spirit of this day back to Taiwan, here are three workouts you can execute directly.

Workout A: Long endurance + final climb (simulating the whole stage)

• 3 hours of flat cruising at 68–75% of FTP (upper Zone 2); if you have riding partners, rotate turns
• Follow with a 20–30 minute climb at 100–110% of FTP (Fengguizui, Balaka, or Beiyi all work)
• Don’t rest after the summit; immediately hammer 20 minutes of flat at 85–90% of FTP
• Nutrition discipline: 60–90g carbs, 500–800ml water, 500–800mg sodium per hour

The point of this workout isn’t total duration—it’s the ability to execute high intensity in a fatigued state. That’s the core of breakaway racing.

Workout B: Group rotation efficiency (simulating the 57-rider break)

• Find a group ride of 6+ riders, set a 30-second rotation
• Target speed 38–42 km/h (a realistic range on Taiwan’s flats), maintain for 60 minutes
• Each rider’s power at the front must be fixed (e.g., 95% of FTP), not “as hard as you can”
• This forces you to learn to rotate by power rather than feel—the foundational skill of all group racing

Workout C: Summit sprint and descent chase (simulating the final 800 meters of the Ballon)

• Sprint all-out for the final 800 meters of a climb (130–150% of FTP)
• Immediately enter the descent after the summit, maintaining an aggressive position, no rest
• After the descent, do a 5-minute flat TT
• Repeat 3–4 sets

This is what Pidcock did on the Ballon, and it’s also how Braz Afonso caught back. Taiwan’s Yangjin Highway, Pingtung County Road 199, and Nantou Route 139 are all suitable.

Conclusion: A Classic Where “Nothing Happened”

Stage 13 of the 2026 Tour de France didn’t change the yellow jersey, didn’t change the top three, and saw no GC attacks. By traditional standards, it was a “transition stage.”

But it was also: the longest day of this edition, one of the fastest mountain stages ever, the day with the biggest single-day GC shift (Pidcock 10th → 4th), the most critical day of the green jersey war, and the day a 26-year-old Swiss rider spent an entire year exorcising his demons.

This is the beauty of a three-week Grand Tour—when you think nothing is happening, everything is happening simultaneously. Pogačar was saving energy, Pedersen was protecting points, Pidcock was climbing the standings, Schmid was fighting for his career, and the Ballon d’Alsace just stood there silently, as it has since 1905, waiting to sort the riders into two groups.

The next day, the same mountain would appear again. And that day, Pogačar would no longer be polite.

Appendix: The Day’s Numbers at a Glance

• Stage Distance: 205.8 km, the longest stage of this Tour; 6.3% of the total 3,245 km
• Winner’s Finish Time: 4h 06’ 58"
• Gap between 1st and 2nd: same time (decided by sprint)
• Gap between 1st and the peloton: 7’ 32"
• Maximum size of the breakaway: 57 riders
• Maximum lead of the breakaway: approx. 8’ 30" (at the summit of the Ballon d’Alsace)
• Distance from Ballon d’Alsace summit to finish: approx. 29 km
• Decisive attack point: just over 15 km from the finish
• Time bonuses for top 3: 10s / 6s / 4s
• Intermediate sprint points: Philipsen 25, Pedersen 20, Girmay 16
• KOM points of the day (Ballon d’Alsace, Cat. 1): Pidcock 10, Schmid 8, Van Gils 6, Plapp 4, Vauquelin 2, Jegat 1
• Biggest GC mover: Tom Pidcock (10th → 4th, gaining a relative advantage of 7’ 34")
• Most Combative Award: Tom Pidcock
• Abandonments of the day: No major GC riders abandoned

The results, time gaps, KOM points, and race details in this article draw from the official results in the CTYeh race database, Cyclingnews’ post-race reports and segment-by-segment coverage, and ProCyclingStats’ full results and stage information. Any detail that could not be cross-verified across these sources has been omitted.

One final, easily overlooked observation: the peloton’s finish time that day was 4h 14’ 30" (7’ 32" down), while the time cut was set at 4h 51’ 25" (winner’s time plus 18%). That means even the sprinters and domestiques who had the worst day and were hanging onto the back of the convoy had nearly 37 minutes of buffer—a margin that would be impossible on a mountaintop finish stage.

This detail shows the organizers’ care in scheduling: placing the longest day on a mountain transition stage rather than a high-mountain showdown, giving the entire peloton a “long but controllable intensity” buffer before entering the consecutive high mountains of the Vosges and Jura. The next day’s Stage 14 was only 155.6 kilometers but had nearly 3,900 meters of climbing; the day after that, Stage 15, was 183.8 kilometers with over 4,000 meters of climbing and an HC mountaintop finish. From this perspective, Stage 13 was actually the first act of a three-day drama—it traded length for the intensity space of the following two days.

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