"This is a stage I aimed for in December already" - Victor Campenaerts benefits from half year of work to take career-changing win

Victor Campenaerts is a very popular rider in the peloton and so his victory at the Tour de France today is one that many celebrate. After winning back in 2021 at the Giro d'Italia, the Belgian rider has proven that making the switch away from time-trials was a worthy one as he takes the biggest win of his career in Barcelonnette.

The Belgian knew today would be his final chance and managed to get himself in the breakaway, a very large group of three dozen riders that stormed up the road and far away from the peloton. Campenaerts wouldn't be able to make the differences uphill but if he got a gap he would always be a very dangerous rider to take into consideration on rolling terrain such as this.

"Winning a stage in the Tour de France is everybody's dream and I'm not a neo-pro I've been dreaming about this for a very long time. After the classics I had a very difficult time, I had a verbal agreement with the team about extending the contract and I was ignored for a long and it was very difficult," Campenaerts admitted in a post-race interview. "I was in a long altitude camp, but my girlfriend was there and supported me everyday highly pregnant and I was struggling to finish my training schedules, but I changed my mind, I have a bright future now still in cycling, I became a father and it's like blue skies, only blue skies, I started to feel very good on the bike and coming to this Tour de France with a super motivated team we have a super good atmosphere in the team, and this is just the result of this atmosphere in the team, and we're gonna celebrate tonight".

With 38 kilometers to go, he followed the key move of Michal Kwiatkowski over the top of the Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées. Mattéo Vercher joined them, and the trio worked their way into the finish, expanding their gap over the rest as other groups did not collaborate properly. It seemed like every single move was perfect for him today, as Michal Kwiatkowski closed Vercher's attack in the final kilometer and then placed himself in the head of the group into the sprint. Campenaerts came from behind and sprinted to victory.

"I think i played it very smart and also the team gave me a lot of confidence that everyone knew I had very good legs and this is a stage I aimed for in December already. Stage 18 is the only stage I see an opportunity for me to win. I slipped in the breakaway with only one bullet. I maybe played it a bit dirty with trying to show I was hurting a lot so that I didn't have to do many pulls," he added. "We had a great attack there in the finale, we collaborated very well together actually until the final kilometer. I'm so describable, there are still three hard days to come but I'm looking forward so much to go home to my son":

The Belgian was in no way afraid of showing how emotional he was and how much this victory meant to him: "This is the support I had from my girlfriend is incredible, she's always there for me, we went nine weeks on an altitude camp, she was highly pregnant, she gave birth to our son on the bottom of the climb in Granada, she is the hero in this story and I'm so grateful that she made this possible, the team made it possible, that I had the super long altitude camp to prepare this Tour de France, I got a lot of faith from the team also because the birth of my son I didn't do any preparation recently into the Tour de France but I had the faith that I had good shape. I will be leaving the team but I'm so happy we can finish off with maybe the highlight of my career. It's a super nice way to leave the team and for this Tour de France again, we will celebrate tonight".