Jumbo-Visma continued its rampage on the 19th stage, when Christophe Laporte secured the first French victory in this year’s Tour de France.
Updated less than 20 minutes ago
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On the 188.3 kilometers from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors, it became clear early on that that stage was a target for the sprint teams. A break with five men was allowed to go off, but they were kept in check, so the job of driving them in towards the end would not be too great.
Because in Cahors, a technical finish awaited, with seven roundabouts of five kilometres, and a gentle downhill race. But it didn’t turn out quite the way the sprint teams envisioned.
First over the finish line was Laporte, who took the inside turn on the rest after a highly dramatic finish.
– A real bomb. A funny but serious bomb, commented TV 2’s Christian Paasche when Laporte crossed the finish line.
With around three miles left in the stage, three men broke away from the field in slightly hilly terrain. The three hopefuls held off until there were 1.5 kilometers to go. Then Laporte took matters into his own hands, drove up to the three, before pushing away from them and taking the stage win.
– I’m incredibly happy, I can’t believe it. Wout said to me: Today is your turn. The last time he said it was in Paris-Nice, it brings me happiness,” Laporte, who also won the first stage of Paris-Nice earlier this year, told the organizer and continued:
– It is important to get a French victory. If it makes the fans and my family happy, I’m happy too.
He thus secured both his first victory in the race and France’s first in the 2022 edition. The last time a Frenchman won was when Julian Alaphilippe crossed the finish line first on the first stage of last year’s edition.
–Behind followed a number of sprinters who were unable to catch up with the Frenchman, the closest being Jasper Philipsen and Alberto Dainese. Alexander Kristoff was eventually number 15.
– There were a bit too many roundabouts. There is too much up and down speed. It tends to “kill me”. I’m a bit too heavy, so every time I have to brake and accelerate, it’s not optimal for me. It is better if there is a steady speed. At the end, I was fairly exhausted. I came a little behind and tried to take the momentum with me, but when you see that it doesn’t work, you stiffen quickly, Kristoff concluded to TV 2.
With Laporte’s victory, Jumbo-Visma has a total of five stage wins in this year’s Tour, and the most recent was somewhat surprising.
– He is very strong and has had a very good season this year. When it got so hard at the end it’s not so surprising, but it was a little surprising that he won and not the man in green, says Kristoff to TV 2.
At the same time as there was another stage win for the Dutch team, they are heading for overall victory with Jonas Vingegaard. That despite the fact that Tadej Pogacar took five seconds on the Dane when he was ahead of a split. Before tomorrow’s 40 kilometer long pace, there is now a difference of three minutes and 21 seconds between the two.
–Although it did not become the big sporting drama until towards the end of the 19th stage, the field’s riders encountered a small obstacle during the stage.
About three miles into the stage, the race was put on hold by a protest. Thus, the main field drove in the breakaways, who had built up a gap of one minute and 20 seconds.
When the race was restarted, the five in the original breakaway were allowed to drive from the main field again.
The field waited until the break had regained the time difference before they set off with just over 155 kilometers to the finish in Cahors.
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