Tour de France: Mohoric wins 19th stage in photo finish - Politt with chain breakage
DPA
· 21.07.2023
Matej Mohoric celebrated an emotional photo finish victory, Nils Politt raged about an annoying chain break on the way. The Cologne-based professional cyclist experienced a bitter day on the 19th stage of the 110th Tour de France.
Nils Politt drops out of the leading group after a defect
After the defect around 90 kilometres before the finish, he lost his place in a leading group. Politt received three spare wheels from a neutral vehicle, but none of them fitted. As a result, he lost valuable time and lost touch.
The Slovenian Mohoric won the long final straight of the 172.8 kilometres to Poligny in a photo finish by a wafer-thin margin ahead of the Dane Kasper Asgreen. Australian Ben O'Connor took third place. At first, Mohoric did not know whether he or his opponent had won. He was all the more emotional when the result was announced. For him, it was his third stage win in a Tour of France.
Chasers around Zimmermann let the leading group go
Georg Zimmermann finished eleventh. The rider from Augsburg, who chased the three-man lead group at the end, had finished second on the tenth stage, narrowly missing out on victory. Politt had last secured a German stage win in 2021.
The rider from the German team Bora-Hansgrohe experienced a bitter day. After receiving spare wheel after spare wheel, the 29-year-old started to ride and then stopped again. After the third wheel he tried, he angrily leaned the spare against a car and waited for a replacement from his racing team, which he received after a short time.
Politt had declared before the start of the stage that he wanted to attack. "Hopefully it will be a breakaway group and I will fight for that." The plan initially worked out for the rider from Cologne. Around 125 kilometres before the finish, Politt joined Zimmermann in a breakaway group with seven other riders. At the back of the peloton, team colleagues from the escape group at the front of the peloton slowed down the pace. The leading group built up a cushion of just over a minute, but was caught around 67 kilometres before the finish line.
Tough Vosges stage awaits on stage 20
As expected, nothing changed at the top of the overall standings. The Danish defending champion Jonas Vingegaard is still 7:35 minutes ahead of his rival Tadej Pogacar. The Tour de France victory can only be taken from Vingegaard with two remaining stages to Paris if he crashes.
Only five of the seven German pros were still in the race. Phil Bauhaus abandoned on Wednesday, and a day later Simon Geschke, who was in poor health, ended the Tour. Belgian Wout van Aert also withdrew to be with his pregnant wife Sarah. On Friday he announced the birth of his son Jerome.
A tough final mountain stage awaits the riders before the final act in Paris. Six climbs have to be conquered on the journey through the Vosges, the two most demanding at the end. After 133.5 kilometres and almost 3,500 metres of climbing, the winner of the Tour will be decided on Saturday evening in the Le Markstein ski resort near the German border. Due to the situation in the classification, race leader Jonas Vingegaard could give breakaway riders a generous head start.
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