Tour de France stage 19: Christophe Laporte claims a late break victory

Christophe Laporte continued Jumbo-Visma’s dominance of this year’s Tour de France, winning stage 19 into Cahors with a late attack and, with it, increasing the team’s tally to five for the race.

The 29-year-old ended a long wait for France in snagging the country’s first win of the Tour, reaching the line just one second ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alberto Dainese (Team DSM), Florian Sénéchal (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and the rest of the peloton.

His move came after he bridged across to a stubborn three-man breakaway of Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), and Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM) with 1.3 kilometers remaining. The trio had formed after Gougeard took flight inside the final 35 kilometers and had fended off the sprinters’ teams in impressive fashion, but Laporte timed his move to perfection.

Wright attacked just as the Frenchman bridged to the break but the Briton was dragged back by Stuyven, with Laporte then unleashing a huge attack to fly past them and solo into the finish.

“I still can’t believe it, I’m so happy. I just can’t believe it,” he said. “The team trusted me today, Wout [van Aert] told me today that it was for me rather than for him. With three kilometers to go, we made sure that Jonas was in a safe place. I then jumped to come back [to the break] and I launched from a long way out, but it’s unbelievable that it came off.”

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His victory depended a lot on the efforts of green jersey Van Aert, who sacrificed his own chances of another stage win by riding at the front after the sprinters’ teams had struggled to reel in the break. He swung off in the closing kilometers and rolled in well down, but celebrated the news that his teammate had triumphed.

It was, for Laporte, payback for his own work for the Dutch squad during the race.

“I’ve been really happy at this Tour de France, even if I haven’t had any massively positive results, just because I’ve enjoyed working with the team and what we’ve achieved,” he said. “Today, they gave me this opportunity and it became really special as a consequence.

“I’m really pleased, I’m at a loss for words. I’m happy to have given the public something to celebrate and I hope that they’re happy for me.”

Like Laporte, American rider Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) had a visit to the podium. He was awarded the most aggressive rider prize after attacking with four others soon after the start and then clipping away alone with about 50 kilometers left. Although he was reeled in 15 kilometers remaining he showed once again the strength he has in his debut Tour, and may well try again on the historic boulevards of Paris on Sunday.

The general classification remained largely unchanged, with an initial time gap showing Pogačar, in fifth, gaining five seconds on Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in 13th. However that was later revised and the Slovenian is still 3:26 adrift heading into Saturday’s time trial and, barring a completely unexpected turn of events, appears set for the runner-up slot on the podium on Sunday evening.

Before then there’s Saturday’s time trial, which he has already indicated he will try to win, and then Sunday’s concluder where the sprinters hope to finally get things right and have a real head-to-head to the line.

For now, though, it’s all about Jumbo-Visma, which has five stages, the yellow jersey, the green jersey, and the polka-dot jersey to its credit.

Breakaway riders set out to frustrate the fast-men

Stage 19 of the Tour de France was far flatter than recent days, with the 188.3 kilometer stage from Castelau-Magnoac to Cahors featuring just two category four climbs, the Côte de la Cité Médiévale de Lauzerte (km 135.7) and the Côte de Saint-Daunès (km 152.6).

It appeared tailor-made for a bunch gallop, but the fatigue of three weeks of racing and flagging motivation of some riders coupled with the determination of others to pull off a stage win meant that a breakaway move was inevitable. The possibility of crosswinds further added to the uncertainty.

The race began without Enric Mas (Movistar), who tested positive for COVID and withdrew before the start. Five riders attacked four kilometers in, namely Simmons, Mikkel Honoré (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious), and Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe). Of those, Simmons was the youngest rider in the race.

Pushed on by a tailwind, they built a lead of 1:05 by kilometer 20 and inched that upwards to 1:20 over the next few kilometers. However, they came to a complete halt when protestors blocked the road. The race was soon restarted with the same gaps in place.

Mohorič had taken the corresponding stage 19 from a break last year and, unsatisfied with his performance thus far in the Tour, was hoping to do so again this time around. However, the peloton was set on keeping a close rein on things and reduced the gap right down to a fistful of seconds.

This prompted Politt to surrender his efforts and go back to the bunch, but Honoré refused to yield and drew the other three riders clear. They redoubled their collaboration and gradually stretched out their lead once more, holding an advantage of one minute with 100 kilometers left.

Simmons goes it alone as Pogačar fires off an unexpected attack

Predictably, it was the sprinters’ teams that were doing the chasing. Alpecin-Decuninck and Lotto Soudal put in much of the heft, and just before the day’s first climb of the Côte de la Cité Médiévale de Lauzerte the peloton was just 40 seconds behind.

Simmons was sufficiently concerned by that to hit the jets on the climb through the old city and with 52.5 kilometers left on the clock he and Mohorič — who nipped past him to take the prime — were several seconds clear of the other two riders. This acceleration broke the unity of the escape group and was followed by a solo push-on by Simmons.

Behind, the bunch had split into two halves, with the first of those 40 seconds behind Simmons with 48 kilometers yet to cover. Two kilometers later the group mopped up the three other riders, leaving just Simmons up the road.

He kept plugging away and took the prime at the day’s second and final categorized climb, before being finally recaptured with 35 kilometers left. Just over a kilometer after that Pogačar opportunistically jumped clear after two other riders, but was swiftly closed down by Van Aert.

This acceleration prompted others to have a try on the twisting, undulating terrain, with Wright bridging across to Gougeard, who had himself sprung clear prior to Pogačar’s move.

Stuyven followed suit, making it three riders 16 seconds clear with 31.1 kilometers to go. Their collaboration reaped benefits and they widened their lead to 30 seconds just over two kilometers later, and despite a furious pursuit behind by Peter Sagan’s TotalEnergies squad, Lotto Soudal, and Alpecin Deceuninck, they still had 31 seconds in hand with 20 kilometers to go. It wasn’t a huge lead, but it gave them a fighting chance.

Closing kilometers chess match plays out

The break’s buffer was down to 12 seconds going under the 10km banner, at which point Team DSM joined the chase to provide fresh impetus. However, the sprinters’ teams blew up dramatically soon afterward, with Van Aert and Ineos Grenadiers rolling to the front to keep their general classification riders out of trouble.

That gave Wright, Stuyven, and Gougeard a little renewed hope and the trio still had 11 seconds with four kilometers remaining. Lotto Soudal then returned to the front for Ewan and this plus the collaboration of others finally made a difference, hacking the gap down to four seconds with two kilometers left on the dial.

Laporte jumped away from the peloton and bridged with 1.3 kilometers remaining, but Wright was having none of it and clipped away. Stuyven dragged him back and then Laporte swept past, blitzing clear and thundering in to take yet another win for Jumbo-Visma and, importantly, the first stage victory for France in this year’s Tour.