Matej Mohorič dived for the line in Poligny at the same moment as Kasper Asgreen, but he had to wait a little longer to learn that he had won stage 19 of the Tour de France. Tears welled up in the Slovenian’s eyes when the verdict of the photo finish reached him shortly afterwards.
“It means a lot because it’s hard and cruel to be a pro cyclist,” Mohorič explained. “You suffer a lot in preparation, you sacrifice your life and your family, and you do everything you can to be ready. Then after a couple of days, you realise everyone is so incredibly strong that it’s hard to follow the wheels sometimes.”
Mohorič won two stages on the 2021 Tour, but he struggled at last year’s race, learning afterwards that he had been suffering from Epstein-Barr syndrome. His 2023 season, meanwhile, had begun with a strong display at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but his spring campaign was ultimately derailed by a succession of crashes.
Although Mohorič claimed a stage win and second overall at last month’s Tour of Slovenia – “The best legs of my lifetime,” he said – the build-up to this Tour de France was utterly overshadowed by the tragic death of his Bahrain Victorious teammate Gino Mäder following a crash at that week’s Tour de Suisse.
“We spend more time with teammates than family sometimes, and we feel really close to them and attached,” Mohorič said in his post-stage press conference in Poligny. “Fortunately, I was not in Suisse, because I don’t know how I would have handled that situation. It puts everything in perspective and makes you doubt your career and what you do.”
Mohorič is the third Bahrain Victorious rider to win a stage of the 2023 Tour after Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels. He followed his teammates in paying tribute to the late Mäder after his victory, explaining that he had been inspired by the Swiss rider en route to his third-place finish on the Puy de Dôme on stage 9.
“In 2021, I wouldn’t have contested for the win on a climb like that, but I just smashed myself up the climb because I knew Gino was a climber,” he said. “I wanted to give my best because he can’t anymore.”
Breakaway
With an explosive stage in the Vosges and the Champs-Élysées sprint to come this weekend, Friday’s hilly run to Poligny effectively marked Mohorič’s final opportunity to claim a win on this Tour. Despite the rolling terrain, the stage was run off at a searing average speed of 49.13kph, and Mohorič maintained that his powers of endurance ultimately came to the fore.
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