Tour in France | A brutal sport

“I was aiming for a good result today and I had the legs to do it. Unfortunately, we made a huge mistake and it wasn’t possible. I blame myself and it’s unforgivable…”

Hugo Holly gave himself soap after a stage where his team missed a fine shot in Côte d’Ivoire.

It’s no time to hunt down the beauties of the same name when Kasper Asgren, Ben O’Connor and Matej Mohoric trek at the foot of the final difficulty on the 19th.^H A rather crazy stage of the Tour de France, carried out at top speed from 0 km on Friday.

Already Guillaume Boivin, Simon Clarke and Nick Schultz pedaled like crazy to close the gap on the first breakaway of the day, missing out on Israel-Premier Tech (IPT) and the Norwegians from Uno-X and Roses from EF Education, who also pushed to the wheel.

A few rows back, in front of the yellow jersey’s Jumbo-Vismas Jonas Vingegaard, Hole gritted his teeth, his head tilted a little more than usual.

“I was nervous! After all the efforts the guys had put in, I didn’t want to miss my shot when we got back,” said Hall, the last rider to try to come back from that initial breakaway.

The crank part held on at around a good 50 km/h, and the gap with the leaders froze hopelessly around the minute.

Ney’s intermediate sprint, contested by Alpecin-Deceuninck’s green jersey Jasper Philipsen, gave the necessary impetus to the regroup. The race started 70 kilometers from the finish line.

This time, IPT ended up with four in a group of 35 units. Clark continued his efforts to track down the indefensible Belgium’s Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Destiny), on his way to being named fighter of the day for the second consecutive day. However, the Australian veteran suffered cramps in Ivory Coast, depriving the IPT of a quarter of its leading pool.

When Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step) started first, Hall and Krists Nylands weren’t on the right foot. “I didn’t want to put myself completely in the red and then jump in,” the 32-year-old Alkibaker explained.

Especially since his team could count on his “trump card” in running fast, young Corbin Strong. However, the New Zealander fell downhill, leaving Hall and Nylands in charge of defending the blue, white and orange colours.

At the 15km mark, Asgreen, O’Connor (AG2R) and Mohorič (Bahrain) took about twenty seconds ahead. In a scenario befitting the Belgian spring classic, nine riders formed a world-class chase group, with names such as Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin), Phillipsen, Tom Pidcock (Ineos), Mads Pedersen (Liddell), Mathieu Trenten (UAE) and co.

Seconds later, Houle told teammate Nylands to mark two Jumbo-Vismas, Christophe Laporte and Tejs Benott, who also missed the shot. “With my experience, I knew that one of them would make a comeback.”

Nylands himself went out with Frenchman Laporte in his haste… returned empty-handed.

Hall took the blame with his roommate from Latvia. “It is unacceptable that one of us was not present to sprint on the fourth position.”

The leading trio has already gone to the finish in Pollini. O’Connor, the slower, fired first, followed by Asgreen, who was aiming for a second successive victory after his victory at the extremes the previous day at Bourg-en-Bresse.

But it was Mohoric, with perfectly synchronized clumsiness, who bested the Dane. With a (surround) frame, the final image appears, which is four milliseconds.

In tears after the third success of his Tour career, Mohoric delivered an impassioned appeal to the “cruelty” and “cruelty” of cycling.

« Tu souffres beaucoup pendant la préparation, a déballé le Slovène. Tu sacrifies ta vie et famille et tu fais tout ton possible pour arriver prêt ici. Puis, après quelques jours, tu réalises que tout le monde est incroyablement fort, que c’est parfois difficile de simplement suivre la roue du gars devant toi. »

L’ex-vainqueur de Milan-San Remo a loué « la volonté et la détermination » d’Asgreen d’attaquer de nouveau après sa victoire de la veille.

« Tu as l’impression que tu n’as pas d’affaire là. Puis je le suis, par la seule force du mental, et je sais que je dois tout faire à la perfection [pour espérer l’emporter]. »

For Gino Meader, a teammate who was killed in the race last month, and the members of the work team, who have to run from 6am to get their day’s work done until 11pm.

Mohori even had an idea for O’Connor (3^H), who committed himself to the end, knowing his chances were almost nil.

A little more, and Mohori apologized for inheriting the bouquet. “I know I’m strong enough to win a stage in the Tour de France, and so do 150 other men. Right now, every runner deserves to win. I saw their faces in the gruppetto on the Col de la Loze that day. You know what they’re going through. I’d like every single one of them to win a stage because I know how much it changes your life. But it wasn’t possible. And it’s tough.”

Sixteenth on this stage, completed at 49.13 km/h, the fifth average in history, Hall fully agreed.

“At the speed you’re going, if you’re not at your best level, it’s not possible, confirmed last year’s Foix winner. I won’t win a stage every year, but I can win another, that’s for sure. »