And finally – here is Jeremy Whittle’s stage report from Bourg-en-Bresse:
That should be my lot for Tour de France blogging this year – thanks so much for reading, emailing in and tweeting. Enjoy the rest of it and see you next time.
William Fotheringham’s thoughts on tomorrow’s stage: another flattish one, but more breakaway friendly than today:
Stage 19, Friday 21 July: Moirans-en-Montagne-Poligny, 173km
Another flat stage, this time out of the Jura and into the Doubs. This should be another bunch sprint, but there’s a stiff little climb 26km out, which could well put the riders who are left in the sprinters’ teams seriously off their stride. So perhaps a reduced bunch sprint for a seasoned warhorse such as Mads Pedersen.
Ciccone 88
Gall 82
Vingegaard 81
Powless 58
Pogacar 49
Vingegaard 72hr 04min 39sec
Pogacar +7min 35sec
A Yates +10min 45sec
Rodríguez +12min 01sec
S Yates + 12min 19sec
Philipsen 352
Pedersen 202
Coquard 188
Pogacar 146
Meeus 117
Why bother with breakaways on a flat stage?
Perhaps slightly unnecessarily, one might argue, the official Tour de France website mentions that Jonas Vingegaard remains in the yellow jersey, following a day that had no impact on the GC.
If you missed the past couple of days, you may be interested to know that Vingegaard leads the GC by seven minutes and thirty-five seconds. Yes, you read that right.
“Tomorrow it will be even harder to have a sprint. The breakaway will be strong and probably go to the end,” says one of the Alpecin-Deceuninck sports directors, Christoph Roodhooft, on Eurosport.
He also said that he doesn’t think they made a misjudgement with the chase. But he compliments Asgreen and Campanaerts on a sterling effort up front. “They know themselves well,” he says. “And this is the result.”
It sure is.
That’s what makes bike racing so interesting: Four riders from different teams (three different teams in this case) form an alliance to try and set up a stage win, and then on the final straight, it’s every rider for themselves. That was so tense and exciting at the end …
The stage winner Asgreen speaks, with a constant grin on his face after such a satisfying day: “The situation [for the breakaway] was not ideal ... I’d have preferred to go with six, seven or eight,” he says.
“But it’s the last week of Tour, we’re coming off some really, really hard weeks ... we’ve seen it before, even a small group can manage to cheat the sprinter’s teams.
“It was a team time trial, I would say. I could not have done it with out Victor [Campanaerts], Pascal [Eenkhorn] and Jonas [Abrahamson]. They all did amazing out there. To be honest we all deserved the win, with the work we put in, but I’m really happy to come away with it.”
What does the win mean? “It means so much ... with the period I had since my crash in at Tour de Suisse, and having to leave the Tour de France last year ... I’ve come a long way, and to finish it with a victory like this ...
“I’d like to dedicate it to all the people have helped me, and also to Dries [Devenyns], it’s his last Tour. I’d like to dedicate it to him, to his wife,, and his family, and to all the people that helped me in the last year.”
Soudal Quick Step celebrate:
Never write off a strong breakaway … much like Kwiatkowski’s stage win earlier in the race, today demonstrated that while you are out there in front, you have a chance.
1. Kasper Asgreen
2. Pascal Eenkhorn
3. Jonas Abrahamsen
4. Jasper Philipsen
5. Mads Pedersen
A fascinating day in the end. Philipsen tried to stop Eenkhorn from bridging across to the breakaway … and ultimately, Eenkhorn’s presence was no doubt essential to the eventual success of what became a four-man escape group.
There is disbelief among the Eurosport pundits that the breakaway managed to hold off the chasing peloton. It certainly looked like Nils Politt, who put in a massive dig for Bora-Hansgrohe in the closing kilometres, was going to prove decisive in applying the catch.
They made it! The breakaway actually made it … an absolutely massive ride from Asgreen, who stood up and stamped on the pedals with about 250m to go on the final straight. The sprinters were bearing down on break, and were just a few metres away, but the Danish champion timed his final dig to perfection. Eenkhoorn was second.
That’s the first Tour de France stage win for the current Danish time trial champion, a previous winner of the Tour of Flanders.
A huge final effort from Campanaerts in the final kilometre also made a crucial difference.
Wow!
A thrilling finale to what started off as a very uneventful day.
600m to go: Wow! I think they might make it!
1km to go: Just six seconds now! It’s a massive effort from the four men up front. Asgreen puts in another big turn in the break!
2.5km to go: Campanaerts wins the day’s combativity award for the “most aggressive rider”.
4km to go: The rest of the chasers are very, very happy that Politt is there and working. He’s single-handedly cut the gap to 9sec.
5km to go: Now Tim Declercq tries some blocking tactics for Soudal–Quick-Step… but Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) hits the front of the chasing bunch and suddenly the gap falls to 12sec.
7km to go: Lidl-Trek, Intermarché–Circus–Wanty and Alpecin-Deceuninck are the most prominent teams in the chase now. If the escape group didn’t have Asgreen, I don’t think I’d give them a hope here … but they definitely have a chance.
9km to go: The peloton has now rolled into the streets of Bourg-en-Bresse. They negotiate a sharp left-hander and then hit a long, straight, downhill stretch. The gap is 22sec.
11km to go: The co-ordination of the chase in the peloton appears to be faltering somewhat. However, as the road bends right and then left, the helicopter doesn’t have to zoom out too far from the four-man break to find the chasing peloton.
12km to go: The gap is 23sec. A reminder that the riders up front are Kasper Asgreen (Soudal–Quick-Step), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) and Victor Campanaerts and Pascal Eenkhorn (Lotto Dstny).
14km to go: Now the gap falls to 23sec. The riders kick on desperately up at the front, trying to give themselves a chance of fighting for the stage win. But their days look numbered.
16km to go: The gap falls to 30sec. Bora-Hansgrohe lead the way on the front of the peloton, on the climb.
17km to go: Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) is visible at the front. Kelly, on Eurosport, thinks he is there to try and disrupt the chase, in aid of his teammate Asgreen up front.
Eenkhorn’s mouth hangs open as he puts in a big effort on the front of the break. He is really grinding it out on a long uncategorised climb. Asgreen takes a drink and bite to eat.
18km to go: According to this photo caption, it was Dad’s Gendarmerie, not Dad’s Army, at the roadside:
20km to go: The gap is 51sec. Big, big ride from Asgreen, who leads the way up front. What an absolute machine.
Over on the Soudal-Quickstep Twitter, here’s a delightful helicopter shot from off the telly:
23km to go: The gap rises to 48sec. The wind is gusty and strong, says Blythe on Eurosport. The sheer effort is visible on the faces of the two Lotto Dstny riders in the break, Campanaerts and Eenkhorn. On the other hand, Asgreen just looks comfortable and barely out of breath, despite the terrifyingly large amount of power he is applying to those pedals.
25km to go: The gap between break and peloton has fallen to 40sec.
With Jasper Philipsen going for his fifth stage win, here is some history on the most stage wins in a single Tour, shamelessly lifted from the official Tour de France site:
“The record of stage wins in a single Tour de France is eight, held by Charles Pélissier (1930), Eddy Merckx (1970 and 1974) and Freddy Maertens (1976). Gino Bartali and Bernard Hinault scored seven, in 1948 and 1979 respectively. The number six has been reached nine times, by François Faber (1909), Marcel Buysse (1913), André Leducq (1932), Jean Aerts (1933), René Le Grevès (1936), Merckx (1969 and 1972), Luis Ocaña (1973) and Mark Cavendish (2009). On 22 occasions, a rider has won five stages in a single Tour de France.”
30km to go: “These guys are not hanging about,” says Adam Blythe on the Eurosport motorbike, now at the front of the race. “It’s not a given that these guys are going to be caught. They are working hard.”
31km to go: The four up front are riding a team time trial to the finish now. (Or certainly trying to.) Eenkhorn looks to be tiring, and drops to the back.
“Mate, you’ve just got here,” says McEwen on commentary, in character as one of Eenkhorn’s fellow escapees. “Give me a break.”
34km to go: Great efforts from the four riders up front. The gap is still over a minute. Currently 1min 02sec. Now, Lidl-Trek and Bora-Hansgrohe have taken it up at the front of the peloton.
“They’re thinking this might be a difficult one to close down,” says Kelly on Eurosport.
The average speed for the day has just ticked up to 44km/h, which shows you how significantly the pace has increased.
36km to go: “I believe the correct pronunciation is “Dysentery”” emails Bob, on Lotto-Dstny.
I suppose you could say they have trouble with their vowels, much like Mark Cavendish’s brand, cvndsh.
“I had a bet with myself,” Campanaerts said of that time trial gearing. Thanks to Mark for emailing the link to this interview with ITV.
“Nowadays we all ride with digital groupsets, and that’s nice,” said the former Hour Record holder. “But it wasn’t working … so I thought, can I do it in this massive gear?”
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Tour de France 2023: Kasper Asgreen wins stage 18 as breakaway stays clear – as it happened - The Guardian
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