Dhe French cycling fans drummed particularly hard against the advertising boards when Christophe Laporte had finally redeemed the Grande Nation. “I’m so happy. The victory was important for France. I’ve given people something to celebrate and I hope they’re happy for me, too,” said Laporte after giving the hosts their first win of the 109th Tour de France two days before the grand finale in Paris.
After a long sprint, the faithful helper of Tour leader Jonas Vingegaard won the 19th stage after 188.3 kilometers from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors in front of Belgian Jasper Philipsen and Italian Alberto Dainese. This saves the French from the biggest fiasco since 1999, when they last failed to win at home.
Vingegaard remains in the yellow jersey
One of the first to congratulate was Vingegaard, who lost five seconds to rival Tadej Pogacar in the final sprint due to carelessness. Nevertheless, his lead of 3:21 minutes over the defending champion remains comfortable. The Dane also has an unassailable lead in the mountains classification. As deputy, Simon Geschke was allowed to wear the red dotted dress again, since Vingegaard wears yellow. Geschke lost the mountain jersey on Thursday after nine days.
“I haven’t really understood it yet. I believed the team supported me. There were hardly any chances for me,” said Laporte, who is primarily responsible for protecting captain Vingegaard on the flat stages: “I enjoy working for the team. Tour victory should be assured,” said Laporte.
“Can something still go wrong for Vingegaard?” asked the Danish newspaper “Ekstrabladet”. Not really, because the lead over Pogacar should easily be enough in the individual time trial over 40.7 kilometers from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour on Saturday. Pogacar snatched the yellow jersey from his compatriot Primoz Roglic two years ago in the last fight against the clock just before Paris, but this time it’s not going up the hill.
And Vingegaard is considered a good time trialist, who had already lost only eight seconds to Pogacar at the start in Copenhagen. The Danish flags can therefore be planted for the grand finale on the Champs Élysées on Sunday. “The tour is more or less sealed,” said Pogacar.
The fact that Geschke, as Vingegaard’s deputy, was also allowed to wear the mountain jersey on Friday was rather an unwelcome compulsory event for the Berliner. “Now I’m the guy who drives the jersey around but doesn’t lead the ranking. If I had the choice, I would start in my normal jersey,” said the Cofidis professional, who will probably have this dubious pleasure until Sunday in Paris.
The Spaniard Enric Mas, who was the 16th professional cyclist to get out before the 19th stage due to a positive corona test, will no longer reach Paris. The Movistar driver was in eleventh place overall. During the tour, the four-time tour winner Chris Froome and the German Maximilian Walscheid also had to give up because of Corona.
Of the seven remaining German drivers, only Nils Politt was able to put himself in the spotlight a little on Friday. After the start in the 800-strong town of Castelnau-Magnoac, the birthplace of rugby star Antoine Dupont, Politt was represented in a breakaway group for a while. But the man from Cologne quickly gave up the venture. As a result, Politt experienced the second neutralization of the tour this year at the forefront. Because demonstrators were back on the streets, the stage had to be interrupted for five minutes. Something similar happened on the tenth stage.
