The first former world champion of the Tour de France
Stage 13 is one of the longest in the 2022 Tour de France, with a flat route of 192km from Le Bourg-d 'Oisan to Saint-Etienne. However, cyclists still have to go through rolling roads, many twists and turns, three small mountain passes in the middle of the route and high temperatures in the Rhone Valley.
Seven cyclists escaped early and Pederson was always in a strong position with the support of team-mate Quinn Simmons. The rest of the names are Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Kung (Groupama FDJ), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious), Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) and Jonas Vinegaard-riders with yellow shirts.
In the final 12 kilometres, the lead is a trio of Pedersen, Fred Wright and Hugo Huller. About 300m away from the finish line, Pedersen surpassed two opponents in a wonderful sprint and won the first place in 4 hours, 13 minutes and 3 seconds.
This is Pederson's first time to win a stage in the Tour de France. Before this year's race, Danish cyclists won the Yorkshire World Championship in 2019, the Gent-Wever-Gem Road Cycling Championship in Belgium in 2020 and the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Single Day Road Cycling Championship in Belgium in 2021. However, the Trek Segafredo cyclist has never tasted victory on the Grand Tour-including the Tour de France, Vuelta Spain and Giro d 'Italia.
"The victory I seek will come soon," Pedersen said after finishing first in Saint-Etienne. "I took part in the 2022 Tour de France in good form. I missed the chance to win the race in the first week, but I seized it today. It's great to be on the Podium."
Pedersen's win had little impact on the overall position, though. Jonas Vingegaard finished 19th behind Pederson in 5min 45sec, but still kept his yellow shirt in 50 hours 47min 34sec. The Danish cyclist is 2min 22sec away from Tadej Pogacar, the winner of the past two years' Tour de France.
Belgian cyclist Wout Van Aert of the Jumbo-Visma team remained blue with 333 points, well ahead of Pogacar (164). Meanwhile, Cofidis' German driver Simon Geschke kept the climbing king's red shirt with 43 points.
Today, the 2022 Tour de France continues with its 14th race, with an average climbing distance of 192.5 km from Saint-Etienne to Mende, France.
