2023-07-21 19:41:16
Matej Mohoric in tears after his victory in the 19th stage of the Tour de France in Poligny, July 21, 2023. TIM DE WAELE / AFP
It took several seconds and the examination of the photo-finish to know the name of the winner of the 19th stage of the Tour de France, Friday July 21, in Poligny (Jura). Then, Matej Mohoric burst into tears, while the leaders of his team, Bahrain-Victorious, exploded with joy in their bus. The result is now official: the Slovenian is a few millimeters ahead of the Dane Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step), who won the day before at Bourg-en-Bresse. Their breakaway companion, Australian Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroën), completed the podium.
“I knew Ben was going to throw from long distance, that Kasper was the strongest of the three of us. I threw the bike and that was enoughexplained the winner of Milan-San Remo 2022. I wish all the runners could win, I feel a bit indebted to them. »
Matej Mohoric offers Bahrain-Victorious his third success on this edition, after those of Pello Bilbao, in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme), and Wout Poels, in Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc (Haute-Savoie). “We had a lot of stress before the start of this Tour, given what has happened recently.developed, very moved, Vladimir Miholjevic, one of the team leaders, referring to the death of Gino Mäder, victim of a fall on the Tour of Switzerland, mid-June. Doing this Tour at this level, for us, is incredible. »
Read also on the Tour de France 2023: Article reserved for our subscribers The beautiful operation of Pello Bilbao, which pays tribute to his teammate Gino Mäder
Like his two teammates before him, the winner of the day paid tribute to his deceased comrade: “I felt close to him. Perhaps his disappearance gave us even more determination. On the last climb, I thought of him. »
“I sacrificed everything to arrive ready for this Tour de France”
This day looked like a spring classic on a 173 kilometer long route. After taking more than an hour to form at a hellish pace, the breakaway of nine riders was finally taken over 75 kilometers from Poligny by a large counter-attack group, including sprinter Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Read also: Article reserved for our Tour de France 2023 subscribers: the sprint, Jasper Philipsen’s preserve
A race of movements then started 30 kilometers from the finish. Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) were the first to get out, but they were quickly caught by the winning trio. All that remained was to get along well to lead their escapade to the end.
” It was hard [pour les trois coureurs de tête]because there were very strong runners behind [eux] : Christophe Laporte, Mads Pedersen Matej [Mohoric] is too, and then there was [Kasper] Asgreen et al [Ben] O’Connor. They cooperated well appreciates the Spaniard Xavier Florencio, deputy sports director of Bahrain training. At one point they [les poursuivants] were fifteen seconds away, I started to think to myself that it would be difficult to win. »
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