Kasper Asgreen comes agonisingly close to second straight stage win at the Tour de France: “My plan was to take it easy"

After taking the win from the breakaway on stage 18 of the 2023 Tour de France, Kasper Asgreen would have been forgiven for taking it easy on stage 19 and that indeed was the plan. Almost by accident however, the Soudal - Quick-Step was back in the breakaway and ended up finishing second.

“I didn't have the best legs, yesterday left me feeling a bit empty,” he explained in a post-stage interview with Eurosport. “My plan was to take it easy, but that was difficult. A group drove away, but a few teams had no one with them. So the pace was always very high. At the intermediate sprint there was a group that wanted to make the crossing. I tried to connect and stay between the wheels.”

Despite admittedly not being at his peak, Asgreen made into the break of the break alongside Ben O'Connor and Matej Mohoric, only being beaten by the Slovenian in a photo finish at the line.

“Suddenly I was at the very front and decided to go for it,” he continues. “Sometimes things just don't go the way you expect. We got away on the last categorized climb. We had a really good group and we rode well together until the finish.”