Matej Mohoric claimed stage 19 like in Libourne 2021 to make it three for himself in his career as a Tour de France rider and three for his Bahrain Victorious team this year. A duel made a Slovenian beat a Dane since Kasper Asgreen missed out on the two-in-row by a very small margin. On GC, Denmarks kept the lead over Slovenia and Jonas Vingegaard received the 25th Maillot Jaune of his career in Poligny.
ALAPHILIPPE AND 8 OTHER RIDERS IN THE LEAD
The start of stage 19 was given to 151 riders at 13.33. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) went on the attack for the second consecutive day but he was reeled in after 10km of racing. Mad Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) managed to get a gap for themselves at km 18. The Kazakh national champion took 1 KOM point atop côte du bois de Lionge (km 23) while many people were reacting strongly at the head of the peloton. The leading duo was reeled in at km 37 by the first part of the peloton that included Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar but not Adam Yates. Many more skirmishes took place after the regrouping. It led to the formation of a 9-man front group at km 57: Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates).
CAMPENAERTS AND CLARKE AHEAD AND 34 CHASERS
Their advantage was 1’15’’ at km 62 but teams Israel-Premier Tech, Uno-X and EF Education-EasyPost were unhappy to have missed the breakaway so they chased hard. The front runners were only one minute ahead when Politt broke his chain and couldn’t resume racing on a new bike before the peloton overtook him with 90km remaining. 65km before the end, the eight leaders were joined by a group of more than thirty riders including Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma). Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Campenaerts rode away right after the regrouping. Intermarché-Circus-Wanty seized the reins of the peloton to bring everyone together in favour of Biniam Girmay but they eventually surrendered and the gap went up. The 34 riders behind the leading duo were: Benoot, Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ), Alberto Bettiol, Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Haig, Matej Mohoric, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Marco Haller, Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Ben O’Connor, Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citroën), Van der Poel, Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), Luke Durbridge, Dylan Groenewegen, Luka Mezgec (Jayco-AlUla), Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Jonas Abrahamsen, Anton Charmig, Rasmus Tiller, Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X), Daniel Oss and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies).
PHOTO-FINISH TO SHOW MOHORIC WINS
Clarke gave up because of cramping. Asgreen, O’Connor and Mohoric overtook Campenaerts in the ascent of côte d’Ivory with 30km to go. Lots of counter-attacks were launched behind them in the last 25 kilometres. 10km before the end, they had 20’’ lead over nine chasers. The leading trio remained composed during the 8-km long straight line. O’Connor launched the sprint 500 metres before the line. He was overhauled by Asgreen who looked like going for his second stage win in a row but Mohoric pipped him on the line to claim his third Tour de France stage victory after he imposed himself at Le Creusot and Libourne in 2021. It’s also the third stage win for his Bahrain Victorious team this year following the successes of Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels. It makes it 16 stage wins for Slovenian riders since Primoz Roglic took the first one at Serre-Chevalier in 2017.
