Stage 13

The road

At the start

The longest day, to the Ballon d'Alsace

Fernando Gaviria, brought down inside the last kilometre in Chalon-sur-Saône, is one of three riders who do not start; Pogačar's lead over Vingegaard is untouched at 3:36. This is the longest stage of the race and the only one past two hundred kilometres, running from Dole to Belfort over the Col des Croix and then the Ballon d'Alsace, the climb that made the Tour's first mountain stage 121 years ago.

How it was won

1. 167 km to go

   Fifty-seven strong at Mélisey

   Pedersen has dragged himself across to the Girmay group and the lead group is now 57 riders and almost seven minutes up. Philipsen takes the sprint at Mélisey, but Pedersen holds off Girmay for second and gives away only five points.

2. 247 km to go

   Eight minutes and counting

   The huge escape is thinning but still unwieldy over the Col des Croix, 8:10 ahead of the maillot jaune — enough for Pidcock to threaten everyone on GC except Pogačar himself.

3. 334 km to go

   Van Gils detonates the Ballon d'Alsace

   The sprinters have long since sat up when Maxim Van Gils attacks with 4km of the Ballon left. Pidcock shuts it down, but the damage is done — ten riders remain, and Luke Plapp is already countering.

4. 429 km to go

   Pidcock swings and misses

   With the summit 800 metres away Pidcock throws everything at it and shifts nobody but Braz. Eight men crest the Ballon together, Braz and Wellens rejoin on the descent, and the stage will be decided by whoever dares first.

5. 515 km to go

   Tejada and Schmid slip away

   As the road flattens towards Belfort, Harold Tejada and Mauro Schmid nip clear of the ten and open twenty seconds — small, but the Pidcock group is watching each other instead of the road.

6. 6At the line

   Schmid wins the two-man duel

   At the end of the Tour's longest day, averaging over 51kph, Schmid times it perfectly to out-sprint Tejada in Belfort and give Jayco-AlUla their first win of the race.

The result