Seconds that seem like hours… before deliverance, and the body giving up. Unless you have had your heart amputated, it is impossible not to have a little pinch when you see Matej Mohoric burst into tears at the finish of the 19th stage of the Tour de France in Poligny, this Friday. The Slovenian beat Kasper Asgreen with a gut, in an energy sprint, after 170 kilometers of a fierce battle across the Jura at an average speed of more than 49 km / h. “It went all over the place from the start”, observed a rather bewildered Jonas Vingegaard after having collected his yellow jersey.
Mohoric proved to be the strongest, and above all the smartest, to win this stage run like a classic, with incessant attacks, a green jersey which tries a gamble 70 terminals from the finish and finally riders burst into a multitude of small groups. The good shot left 30 kilometers from the end, launched by Asgreen, on a cloud after his victory the day before. Only Mohoric and O’Connor followed and, after swallowing the survivor Campenaerts, the three men explained themselves at the end of an interminable final stretch. The Slovenian explains how he did it:
“I suspected that Ben [O’Connor] was going to go first because it was his only chance to win, that Kasper [Asgreen] was going to follow him because he was the strongest, and I had to do everything to follow him and try my luck. I did, and then I threw the bike and it smiled. It’s cruel sometimes on the bike, I almost feel like I’ve betrayed them because without them, I would never have arrived there. I would like all runners to be able to win a stage. »
“Sometimes it feels like you have nothing to do”
These are not just empty words to do good. Mohoric said all this with obvious sincerity, confirmed by his moving testimony a few moments later for international TV. “I knew today was the biggest opportunity for me to win a stage. I sacrificed everything to arrive ready for this Tour. But everyone is in this case, we all suffer and everyone is very strong. There are 150 guys who come here to win and deserve it, he preached. It’s so hard, the other day in Loze I was exhausted. You sometimes have the impression that you have nothing to do there, the level is so high. But afterwards, you see the management getting high for you, the mechanics working late into the night. It helps you get going in the morning. »
We have rarely heard such a speech from a winner, like that a few minutes after the victory of his life. Perhaps it is also these last singular weeks lived with his team of Bahrain Victorious who speak. Bereaved by the death of Gino Mader following a fall during the Tour de Suisse on June 16, the heterogeneous formation of the Gulf has tightened and seems to be running with extra soul. It is in the process of achieving the most beautiful Tour of its short history with this third victory brought by Mohoric, which follows those of Pello Bilbao in Issoire and Wout Poels in Saint-Gervais. “At the end, I was at the end but I told myself that I had to do my best, not just for myself but for Gino and the whole team”, underlined Mohoric, who was not yet fully recovered when the peloton arrived, almost 15 minutes later.
Among these latecomers (volunteers), Tadej Pogacar quickly pulled himself out of the crowd to congratulate his compatriot. “I’m super happy for him, it’s always good to see a friend win, reacted the white jersey and second overall. It’s a big win for him, that’s for sure. “The interested party will not say the opposite, he who had underlined just before how much the Tour de France was THE race where “raising your arms changes your life”. There are after-races like this that don’t make you regret staying.