Matej Mohoric denies Asgreen back-to-back Tour de France stage wins on crazy day more akin to a Spring Classic

Cycling
Friday, 21 July 2023 at 17:08
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On a stage of the Tour de France that looked more like a Spring Classic, there were groups all over the road. Taking victory from the leading group it was Matej Mohoric of Bahrain - Victorious who emerged victorious.

Stage 19 of the Tour de France will be a rolling and tricky day. On paper, one for the sprinters, however there is space to surprise on what is one of the final days of racing, especially as the start is hilly, there are a few hilltops and at this point in the race, many riders may want to attack.

The start of the stage was incredibly brutal. Over 60km of non-stop, full gas racing kicked off the day before a breakaway finally managed to get clear, but not before many riders had dropped out the back.

Nine riders eventually went clear, including one of yesterday's breakaway heroes Victor Campenaerts. Alongside the Belgian, Julian Alaphilippe, Matteo Trentin, Jack Haig, Tiesj Benoot, Nils Politt, Georg Zimmermann, Warren Barguil and stage 8 winner, Mads Pedersen.

A number of teams had missed out on the break and the chase from the peloton was quite strong, never much more than a minute being given to the leaders.

Sadly for Nils Politt, an ill-timed mechanical then forced him out of the breakaway. With the peloton still less than a minute behind, there was no time to get a new bike and return to the break.

After the intermediate sprint, a group of sprinters and riders trying their luck, continued their attack off the front of the peloton.

With 60km to go, a massive group of 36 riders were up the road and Jumbo-Visma came across the peloton to calm things down.

Almost immediately, Campenaerts tried to break free from the break, drawing out Simon Clarke with him.

Behind those a truly immense group of riders that now included the likes of Jasper Philipsen, Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock, Christophe Laporte, Ion Izagirre and Kasper Asgreen.

Despite the immense numbers in the chasing group, Clarke and Campenaerts had soon stretched their lead out towards a minute.

Uno-X Pro Cycling Team were holding exclusive rights at the front of the chasing group and as they reached the bottom of the third category climb of the Côte d'Ivory at around 30km from the finish, the time gap to the leading duo had been pulled back to just 30 seconds.

As soon as the road started climbing, Clarke could no longer follow Campenaerts, leaving the Belgian up front alone.

The break was ripped apart on the climb, with Campenaerts being caught and passed with Asgreen, Matej Mohoric and Ben O'Connor leading over the top.

With 10km to go, the leading trio had 23 seconds over a chase of 9 including Pedersen, Van der Poel and Philipsen with the rest of the break a 1:00 down.

With 5km those gap had actually extended and victory looked certain to be coming from the leading trio.

O'Connor was the first to launch, Asgreen though came roaring over and in the very final, Mohoric made his move with both riders coming across the line side-by-side. After a look at the photo finish the win was awarded to

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