BELFORT, France — Swiss rider Mauro Schmid said that he had to overcome cramps before he beat Colombian Harold Tejada in a two-man sprint finish to win the 13th and longest stage of the Tour de France on Friday.
Briton Tom Pidcock, who finished third two seconds back, was the big winner of the day as he climbed up the standings from 10th to fourth overall.
The Olympic mountain bike champion is now just 4min 15sec behind race leader Tadej Pogacar, and nine seconds off Remco Evenepoel in the final podium spot.
Jayco AlUla’s Schmid and Astana’s Tejada had broken clear of a 10-man group at the head of the race with 16km to ride and they held off their charging former breakaway companions to contest the sprint finish.
Tejada launched first, but Schmid dragged him back and pipped him to the line after 205km from Dole in the Jura to Belfort in the Vosges.
It was particularly satisfying for Schmid, who lost an almost identical finish to Norwegian Jonas Abrahamsen in the 11th stage in Toulouse last year.
“I can’t believe it at the moment. It was an incredibly hard day from the start,” said Schmid.
“I felt really good from the start but it was just full gas from the first minute.”
Schmid said he had started to suffer cramps with 4km left, and that his attempt to make Tejada lead out the sprint in the final kilometre failed.
