Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) claimed his maiden Tour de France stage win after a long day in the break, outsprinting Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) of Colombia at the line after 205.8 km – the longest stage of this Tour. It was the biggest win of the 26-year-old Swiss rider’s career, after losing a similar two-up sprint 12 months ago.
The pair made their decisive move with 15 km to go, leaving the rest of the break behind. Tom Pidcock took third, two seconds back, and also profited from the breakaway day: the Brit (Pinarello Q36.5) moved up to 4th in the GC, now 4:15 down, knocking Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) down a place.
However, the two-time MTB Olympic champion is unlikely to challenge for GC long term. The Tadej Pogacar-led peloton (UAE Emirates-XRG) rolled in 7:32 behind. The Slovenian leads the GC by 3:36 over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), with Lipowitz now 7th, 4:44 back.
Early on, Georg Zimmermann fought hard despite needing eight stitches on his chin after his crash the day before, but his early attack with a few others was reeled in after 40 minutes. The peloton remained restless until a front group of around 60 riders formed after about 50 km. Michel Heßmann (Movistar) and John Degenkolb (Picnic PostNL) made the cut. A second group, chasing the intermediate sprint points 68 km out, eventually rejoined after a long chase.
On the Ballon d’Alsace, a Cat. 1 climb with its summit 30 km from the finish, several attacks came to nothing. In the end, Schmid’s teammate Pascal Ackermann, after a disappointing start to this Tour, also had cause for celebration.
Stage 14 from Mulhouse to Le Markstein Fellering (155.3 km) in the Vosges again offers opportunities for attackers – Vingegaard will find the finish familiar: it was there he sealed his second Tour win in 2023, while Pogacar took the stage that day and will look to repeat.
