updates
Breakaway victory in heat battle
Pedersen sprints the next Denmark Festival
07/15/2022, 5:40 p.m
After the difficult mountain days, the 13th stage of the Tour de France is made for breakaways: The Dane Mads Pedersen seizes the opportunity, in the final sprint he prevails in a group of three despite the heat. Simon Geschke defends the green jersey, Jonas Vingegaard the yellow jersey.
Breakaway Mads Pedersen prevented the expected sprint spectacle in the heat of Saint-Étienne and celebrated his first stage win at the 109th Tour de France. At temperatures of over 35 degrees, the former Danish world champion prevailed in front of Britain’s Fred Wright and Canadian Hugo Houle. Simon Geschke once again successfully defended his mountain jersey after 192.6 kilometers and wrote a small piece of German tour history.
“It’s incredible to finally win the stage. The form is good and it took a lot of attempts. For a rider like me there are few chances on this tour, so I had to take them,” said Pedersen. “For a long time I thought it was a mistake to go into the group. The gap wasn’t big, but the track was difficult enough.” It was already the third Danish stage win on this tour, which started in Copenhagen. As expected, Jonas Vingegaard had no problems defending his yellow jersey in the overall standings. The Dane is 2:22 minutes ahead of defending champion Tadej Pogacar and 2:26 ahead of Welsh ex-tour winner Geraint Thomas.
After the start in Bourg d’Oisans at the foot of the Alpe d’Huez climb, numerous riders attempted a breakaway, including German champion Nils Politt. In the end there was a seven-person leading group without a German driver, in which time trial world champion Filippo Ganna was represented. However, there was no agreement among the sprinter teams on the tracking work, so that the escapees made it to the finish line.
Geschke continues in the green jersey
Bergkönig Geschke did without attacks and other points and stayed in the field after the strenuous days in the high mountains. With 43 points, the Berliner is still at the top of the mountains classification, the South African Louis Meintjes is four points behind in second place. In Saint-Étienne, the 36-year-old received the famous white jersey with the red dots for the fifth time, setting a German record.
So far, Marcel Wüst has been the professional cyclist who, from a German perspective, has worn the mountain jersey most often on the tour. The sprinter from Cologne wore the jersey for four stages in the Tour 2000. Geschke has a good chance of successfully defending the lead in the standings until the second rest day on Monday. The stages at the weekend lead through the central massif and should suit the profile of the Cofidis professional. The only question is how the forces of the veteran are.
One of Geschke’s competitors for the mountain jersey had to admit defeat without a fight in the morning. Warren Barguil was the sixth professional cyclist to leave the tour because of a positive corona test. The team’s other seven riders, including sixth-placed Colombian Nairo Quintana, tested negative, according to the team. The Frenchman Barguil had won the mountain jersey of the tour in 2017 and was within striking distance of Geschke with 30 points before the 13th stage.
Before Barguil, George Bennett, Geoffrey Bouchard, Vegard Stake Laengen, Guillaume Martin and Luke Durbridge had to leave the tour with a corona-positive condition. The next mandatory tests of the world association are on the second day of rest on Monday.