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The Danish former world champion showcased his toughness to win the uphill sprint, facing off against the dominant sprinter of the Tour to date, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the uphill dash to the line after a rolling day of hills for the peloton to negotiate.
"We didn’t know this morning if it would be a break or a sprint. The sprinters didn't want to let the break go,” said Pedersen. “My boys gave me a perfect lead out.”
“It was a long sprint. The final stretch was very painful. I was very close to sitting up with 50 m to go. Jasper had to do a great sprint to overtake me. Yet, it doesn’t matter winning by a large margin or by a small one. Regardless of this, it’s beautiful to win at the Tour."
The stage was marred by the abandonment of all-time stage win record holder Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), the Brit clutching at his shoulder as he was taken to hospital by an ambulance following a crash with 60 kilometres to go. Pedersen paid tribute to the legend of the sport in his winner’s interview.
“For me it was a pleasure to be able to ride with Mark Cavendish,” said Pedersen. “I always had a good relationship with him in the peloton. It's so sad for a legend to finish the Tour like this.”
The breakaway of Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Tim Declerq (Soudal-QuickStep) and Anthony Delaplace were the breakaway of the day that formed after a tough start to the stage where most of the sprinters’ teams tried to either get a rider into the break, or ensure that their rivals weren’t present.
The three rider group got a maximum advantage of five minutes, but from there, they were steadily drawn back in over the rolling terrain.
Jumbo-Visma and Lidl-Trek made it hard on the climbs, but the majority of the sprinters did manage to make it over the short, sharp climbs.
Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) crashed with six kilometres remaining in the race, the leader of the Australian squad scrambling for a replacement bike before setting off again in pursuit of the peloton, ultimately losing 47 seconds to slip from fourth overall to sixth place.
Lidl-Trek led out Mads Pedersen on the tough drag up to the line, but it was Christophe Laporte who overtook for Wout van Aert followed by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who was the last lead-out man present at the front as the road tilted upwards.
As van der Poel passed Laporte, Van Aert went to follow, but was blocked by his own teammate peeling off and lost a few crucial pedal strokes as he tried to avoid a crash.
Pedersen found clear running on the other side as he launched his sprint, with Philipsen coming off van der Poel’s wheel and going side-by-side with the Dane. The excruciatingly long sprint saw Pedersen outlast Philipsen to take the win, with van Aert a fast-finishing third over the top of Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla).
