Attack, combined with his trusty sprint, proved to be the winning method for Mads Pedersen to take his first career stage win at the Tour de France into St. Etienne.
“It’s incredible. I finally take the win I was looking for,” said Pedersen. “Coming to the Tour, I knew my shape was good but I missed the opportunities in the first week. I took my chance today. It’s really nice to get the reward.
“The plan was that if more than four riders in the break, we should be in and I should be in. But for a long time, I thought it was a mistake and we’d get caught by the bunch.
“But it was hard for everyone. It was such a long day. With 12km to go, I thought we were too many guys in the front group so I tried to attack. Luckily we split up the break and it was easier to control.”
Pedersen built on strong work throughout the stage by Trek-Segafredo teammate Quinn Simmons to help him first catch a leading trio of Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) and Mateo Jorgenson (Movistar) along with Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech).
The peloton, led by Lotto Soudal and Alpecin-Deceuninck kept the breakaway on a short leash with the gap hovering between two and two and a half minutes, but a crash to Lotto Soudal’s Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan saw them withdraw from the front of the main bunch, trying for some kilometres to get Ewan back into contention before giving up.
Alpecin-Deceuninck gave up the chase, and it looked over for the peloton as the gap drifted out to three and a half minutes with 45 kilometres remaining, when BikeExchange-Jayco committed in earnest to the chase. It would ultimately prove fruitless for the Australian WorldTour squad, and they called off the pursuit with 17 kilometres left.
Simmons was spent in efforts driving the break for his teammate Pedersen, leaving just six to contest the win. Pedersen was the fastest sprinter in the group by reputation, but was the first to attack, using a climb in the final ten kilometres to jump away with a powerful attack that only Houle and Wright were able to follow.
The trio worked well to keep clear of Ganna, Kung and Jorgenson and were together all the way into the finish, with the sprint a formality for Pedersen as he streaked clear in the final 200 metres and never looked like he would be significantly challenged as he won easily clear of Wright, with Houle third.
The Tour de France continues with Stage 14, a hilly stage with a brutally steep short climb into Mende to finish. Watch on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker from 7.55pm AEST with the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starting from 8.30pm AEST.
