2023-07-10 10:48:58
Rik Verbrugghe, sporting director of Israel-Premier Tech, is a happy man. Thanks to Michael Woods, solo winner at the puy de Dôme this Sunday, the Belgian’s team won its first stage victory in this Tour de France 2023. However, a few kilometers from the finish line, the task seemed very complicated.
Starting in the morning breakaway, the Canadian thought for a time that he had missed the right shot, when Matteo Jorgenson, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Matej Mohoric and Neilson Powless isolated themselves in the lead. Pointed to two minutes at the bottom of the last ascent, Michael Woods still managed to take back his competitors one by one to win alone, 28 seconds ahead of Pierre Latour.
Its sports director has always believed in it. And he also showed himself to be rather cunning in pushing his rider to surpass himself and get this prestigious victory. “We bluffed in the radio, explained the Belgian to the RTBF. Because if I tell him he’s 1’45 from the leading man, he’ll lose all motivation. He was therefore told that it was below the minute and that it was still possible. »
The Canadian still had to find this “minute” long. But he was never discouraged and managed, in just a few kilometers, to overtake everyone, even poor Jorgenson, finally fourth after being in the lead for a long time.
“At first, I didn’t think I could win,” he admitted at the microphone of France Télévisions. I had to give my best effort. If I didn’t win, I still wanted to give my best. It’s always better to be in my place than in Jorgenson’s place. When you can see someone (in front of you), you think it’s always possible. 800m from the finish, I saw that it was really possible so I gave everything I could. And that was enough to win his first victory in the Grande Boucle, at the age of 36.
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