In the more than 100-year history of the French cycling race, there have been two times when the race ended without any home runner winning the stage, in 1926 and 1999. 2022 is very close to becoming the third year in this situation, when 18 stages have passed, fans have only seen cranes from Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, England, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Canada pass the finish line for the first time.
The 19th leg, from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors, 188.5km long, also does not bring much hope to the French, because this is the final climb of this year's Tour de France, with many famous climbers. However, in the end, there was a name that brought joy to the French.
Christophe Laporte accelerated for nearly the last 2km before the finish line at Cahors. He surprised sprinters Jasper Philipsen and Alberto Dainese, who finished second and third. Laporte, 29, is in the Tour de France for the first time in his career, but for the Jumbo-Visma team, this is his fifth win in this year's tournament. With the support and green light of Wout van Aert, Laporte was honored after moving from the Cofidis team to Jumbo-Visma.
139 runners started the 19th leg in Castelnau-Magnoac, home to football player Antoine Dupont, at 1:09 p.m. (local time) on Friday. Mikkel Honore (Quick Step), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) and Taco van der Hoorn ( Inter Intermarche-Wanty Gobert) accelerated ahead in km 4, quickly approached by Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Vicitorious) and Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe).
They had a maximum advantage of 1 minute and 30 seconds before the sprinters of the teams Lotto-Soudal, Alpecin-Deceuninck, BikeExchange-Jayco and DSM created a challenge. Simmons won the intermediate sprint at Auch (38.4). This group competed fiercely, taking turns taking the lead on the journey from km 53 to km 80.
After the defeat to Jonas Vingegaard in the 18th stage, Tadej Pogacar admitted that the championship was slipping away from him. However, the Slovenia turtle still tries to attack when in the starting lineup. As a result, with their efforts, the defending champion finished in 5th place, 1 second behind Laporte.
However, he has only shortened 5 seconds compared to Vingegaard (from 3 minutes 26 seconds to 3 minutes 21 seconds), the yellow shirt still belongs to the curator of the Jumbo-Visma team with the total time after 19 stages of this year's Tour de France being 75 hours 45 minutes 34 seconds.
Today's 20-day route (July 23) from Lacapelle- Marival to Rocamadour with a length of 40.7km will be an individual hourly route.
