This was the kind of stage that reminds everyone why the Tour de France still knows how to surprise. On the longest day of the race so far, a mass breakaway finally stuck, Mauro Schmid took the win in Belfort, and Tom Pidcock turned a busy afternoon into a serious general classification move.
That matters because the 2026 Tour has not been overflowing with easy chances for opportunists. With fewer sprint stages than usual and five summit finishes still to come, riders have had to take their openings when they appear. Pidcock did exactly that on stage 13, slotting into the decisive move on the rolling roads of the Jura and Doubs, then finishing third in the sprint behind Schmid while climbing to fourth overall.
It was a proper breakaway day, not the kind of half-hearted escape that gets swallowed before the finish. More than 50 riders tried to go early, the move was eventually trimmed to 37, and the result was the rare thing this race had been threatening to produce: a successful raid that changed the shape of the standings. Pidcock is now nine seconds behind Remco Evenepoel, which makes him a real top-five threat rather than just a stage hunter with a big engine and a familiar reputation for surviving chaos.
He has already shown this Tour that he is not here to drift along. Earlier in the race he almost won in Ussel, and after crashing into a parked car in Le Lioran, he could have been forgiven for looking for a quieter week. Instead, he has done the opposite. He made the break, stayed committed, and backed up his own assessment that getting into the move was the objective. He said it worked out perfectly, even if the stage win slipped away in the end without teammates around him to help finish the job.
That is the key point here: Pidcock did not just survive a long, awkward stage. He used it. And in a Tour where opportunities are said to be few and far between, that is the difference between being a name in the race and being a rider who might genuinely matter by Paris.
Why this stage felt so important
The race is still being shaped by Tadej Pogacar’s pursuit of a fifth Tour de France win, which would put him alongside the list of five-time winners. But even with the big picture still pointing toward yellow in Paris, these are the days that can rearrange the pecking order underneath the top favourite. Geraint Thomas put it plainly: everyone is looking for opportunities because they are few and far between. He also noted that the Paris stage has changed, which puts even more emphasis on the sprint days. That only increases the value of a rider like Pidcock being aggressive now.
There is a long road ahead, of course, and nine seconds is not a mountain in itself. But it is enough to matter. It means Pidcock is no longer just hanging around in the top ten. He is fourth, he is close to Evenepoel, and he has given himself a real reason to keep attacking. After stage 13, that looks like the right attitude, not a reckless one.
And with Alpe d’Huez returning for back-to-back stage finishes on 24 and 25 July 2026, this Tour may yet have more twists in it. For now, though, Schmid has the stage, and Pidcock has something just as valuable: momentum.
