The brutal numbers behind Mauro Schmid’s first Tour de France stage win

The nail-biting stage began with massive attacks from Kilometer Zero. With 150 km of flat and rolling roads before the first categorized climb, there weren’t many opportunities for climbers to jump into the breakaway. But in the end, the stage would come down to a decisive Cat 1 climb in the Ballon d’Alsace. The finish was 30km later, so the climbers would have to do more than sprint for the KOM banner. But the climb was long enough that they could distance the sprinters and rouleurs. 

A large breakaway of 30+ riders eventually formed, and Schmid was one of them. However, he was without teammates, and the long valley before the finish would certainly turn tactical. Thankfully for Schmid, Lidl-Trek had completely missed the move, so they chased as hard as they could and kept the breakaway’s gap under 30 seconds. 

However, they couldn’t make the catch, the gap blew out, and that’s when Mads Pedersen made the move himself. The green jersey helped drag another group of 25+ riders across to the original break, including Schmid’s teammates, Luke Plapp, Michael Matthews, and Ben O’Connor. 

By the time the break reached the bottom of the first climb, Schmid had averaged 52.1 kph for three hours. That was supposedly the easy part. Now, Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team came to the front of the breakaway and pushed the pace for Pidcock’s GC ambitions. The break had an eight-minute lead on the peloton, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG were happy to let their men in the break – Brandon McNulty and Tim Wellens – go for the stage win. 

The groups stayed together on the first climb of the day, and after a quick descent, it was onto the Ballon d’Alsace. At 9.1km with an average gradient of 6.8%, the climb was built for middle-weight climbers like Schmid, Tejada, and McNulty. Lightweight climbers like Pidcock could attack on the steep sections, but the draft was strong and there was still 30km remaining to the finish. 

The breakaway climbed the Ballon d’Alsace at more than 6w/kg, splitting to pieces and leaving fewer than 10 riders in contention. A few attacks came in the first half of the climb, but the damaging blows came from Maxim Van Gils and Pidcock on the upper slopes. This is likely where Schmid produced his peak five-minute power of the stage: 478w. Pushing that kind of power is certainly impressive, but even more so when you consider the fact that he had just ridden at 52kph for three hours and then done around 450w for the first 15 minutes of the climb. 

Schmid – Ballon d’Alsace
Time: 21:29
Peak 5min Power: 478w (6.8w/kg)

Pidcock tried to split the group again by attacking through the KOM banner, but eight riders were able to stay on his wheel over the Ballon d’Alsace. Wellens managed to close a 10-second gap on the descent, and that solidified the lead group that would fight for the stage win. Crucially, Schmid had a teammate in Plapp, while Pidcock, Tejada, and Van Gils were alone. McNulty and Wellens paired up to try some team tactics, but Plapp marked them as soon as they attacked off the descent. 

A few rounds of attacks came and went, and it was Schmid himself who set up the winning move. The Swiss rider countered a split and drew Tejada with him. Plapp was actually on the Colombian’s wheel, but let it go once he realized Schmid was going off the front. Just like that, the winning gap was established. Schmid’s peak 1min power during the stage was 575w (8.2w/kg), and this certainly could have been how he created the race-winning gap. 

Schmid and Tejada collaborated until 1.4km to go, but that’s when things started to fall apart. Tejada flicked Schmid through, but the Swiss refused to pull. With the chase group only 10 seconds behind, there wasn’t much time to mess around. The leading duo kept on the pedals just hard enough that they had a comfortable lead with 200 meters to go. That’s exactly when Tejada jumped, gaining a few meters on Schmid before the Swiss began to come back at him. With a peak power of 1434w, Schmid slammed his wheel across the line to win his first-ever Tour de France stage. 

Not known as a world-class sprinter, Schmid hitting more than 1400w in the sprint is a testament to how strong Tour de France riders actually are. At the end of a four-hour stage, after pushing more than 300w all day and riding over 400w on the final climb, Schmid not only had the legs to roll attacks in the finale, but also to dominate the sprint to take the biggest win of his career. 

Schmid – Stage 13 Victory

Time: 4:06:58
Average Speed: 50 kph
Peak Power: 1434w (20.5w/kg)
Peak 1min Power: 575w (8.2w/kg)
Peak 5min Power: 478w (6.8w/kg)
Peak 3hr Power: 319w (4.6w/kg)