Matej Mohoric wins by belly in Poligny, the sprinters still beaten in the 19th stage
At the end of a stage with twists and turns, it was the Slovenian from Bahrain-Victorious who won on Friday in Poligny.
Crazy stage on the roads of the Tour, Friday 21st July. With 173 kilometers to go between Moirans-en-Montagne and Poligny, the show promised to be thrilling, it didn’t disappoint. In the winning move, with Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step) and Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën team)the former winner of the Milan-San Remo he resisted the Dane winning by a few centimeters in the photo finish. This is the third victory for the state team in this 2023 edition, after the successes of Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels.
Having set off in pursuit of a Victor Campenaerts who was only in the lead 32 km from the finish, Kasper Asgreen, Matej Mohoric and Ben O’Connor never looked back to reach the finish line with three men. Already victorious on the roads of the Giro and the Vuelta in the past, Matej Mohoric took his third Tour de France victory and inflated an increasingly large palmarès. After Gino Mäder’s death, Mikel Landa’s Tour teammates pay tribute to the Swiss.
Arriving in Poligny over 13 minutes behind the winner, the yellow jersey group enjoyed a quiet day, during which Jonas Vingegaard never worried. All that remains is for him to get through the bumpier and steeper 20th stage without incident to secure a second Tour de France.
Philipsen, Pedersen, Groenewegen, big losers of the day
Like the sprinters, who will have attacked long before admitting defeat, the riders tried hard on Friday. If it took almost 60km for the breakaway to form definitively, under the impetus of Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) notably, the leading eight men were later joined by a field of 28 runners. Started by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck and green jersey) and other sprinters at the time of the intermediate sprint, this countergroup, made up of Mathieu van der Poel, Christophe Laporte for example, was beaten by three of its members.
Trapped, but not stingy with effort, the big names in the sprint who are the green jersey, Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), determined to give themselves a chance to win, worked hard to believe in victory. But they had to give in to the power of figureheads. Already trapped by Kasper Asgreen on Thursday, they miss out on a new opportunity to win a stage and will have to settle for a bunch finish on the Champs-Elysées.
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