Mauro Schmid survived cramps to win a brutal Tour de France stage 13 sprint finish

[StarforgeSocket]

Swiss rider Mauro Schmid won the 13th and longest stage of the 2026 Tour de France on Friday, edging Colombian Harold Tejada in a tense two man sprint finish into Belfort after 205.8 kilometres of racing from Dole. Schmid later admitted he had to fight through cramps in the closing kilometres just to hold off Tejada at the line

The real story of the day belonged to Britain's Tom Pidcock, who finished third on the stage, just two seconds behind the winning pair, and used it to leap from 10th to 4th in the overall general classification. The Olympic mountain bike champion now sits just 4 minutes and 15 seconds behind race leader Tadej Pogacar, and only 9 seconds off Remco Evenepoel for the final overall podium spot with a week of racing still remaining

The stage played out across multiple fronts at once, green jersey points, the general classification battle, and the straight fight for the stage win itself. An early key moment saw Mads Pedersen make a decisive move to close a gap and enlarge the breakaway group, while Jasper Philipsen picked up valuable intermediate sprint points as useful consolation for being caught behind the main breakaway with his Lidl Trek team stuck setting pace in the peloton rather than actually contesting the finish

Pogacar retained the overall race lead through the stage without needing to expend energy fighting for the stage win itself, a sensible bit of race management with the Tour's toughest mountain stages, including the summit finish at Alpe d'Huez, still to come before the race concludes in Paris on July 26

Who Won Stage 13 Of The Tour de France 2026? See The TDF Results - FloBikeswww.flobikes.com

[IdlePhoenix]

Winning through cramps in a two man sprint is such a gutty way to take a stage, physical suffering right at the line is basically the defining image of grand tour racing

[Sharon_77]

Pidcock jumping from 10th to 4th off the back of one strong stage shows how tightly bunched the GC contenders still are with a full week of racing left to shake things out

[GlassKnight]

9 seconds separating a podium spot from missing it entirely with this much racing still to come is going to make every single stage from here feel like must watch television

[Glenn84]

Pogacar being smart enough to just protect the overall lead rather than burn energy chasing a stage win he doesn't strictly need is exactly the kind of patient race management that wins grand tours