Mørkøv misses Tour de France time limit after 200km solo fight

On a day that saw the Tour de France peloton suffer in 40°C heat on the roads of southern France to Carcassonne, few in the race suffered like QuickStep-AlphaVinyl rider Michael Mørkøv.

Dropped in the early kilometres of stage 15, the Dane rode almost the entire 202.5km stage on his own out the back of the peloton. He fought on to the finish, accompanied by a soigneur in a team car, but missed the day’s time cut – which was extended to 20% due to the heat – to come home at 1:05:40.

As Mørkøv crossed the line, at a time when the majority of teams parked up on the Boulevard Marcou had packed up and driven on to their rest day hotels, he was greeted by Tour director Christian Prudhomme.

After a brief conversation, Mørkøv spoke to the waiting press about his day out, which was caused by the extreme heat rather than any illness or injury.

“It was indescribably hard,” he said. “I knew that it would be a difficult stage today. I had to let go of the peloton right at the start. I was determined that I would get to the finish and see if it would be enough to continue.”

“I believed in it all day. Maybe I was a little optimistic, but with 25km to go, I could see that I would have to do a 60kph average speed. Even if I went downhill, I wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

“It’s sad to leave a big race like this,” he added. “[Prudhomme] said thank you for my fight and that he thinks I fought bravely.”

Mørkøv’s goal was the 53:29 mark, meaning he missed the time cut by 12 minutes after his day battling on the bike. He was dropped from the peloton inside the first 20km of the race and lay over 30km further back on the road as the peloton was approaching the final sprint in Carcassonne.

His loss means that QuickStep-AlphaVinyl are now left with six riders at the Tour, and without a rider who is often described as the best lead-out man in the sport.

After Mørkøv had greeted the team staff who had waited for him to finish and climbed onto the bus, QuickStep directeur sportif Tom Steels took time out to

“A lot of respect,” Steels said. “To finish it off like this, to really continue and to finish, all the respect for him. That’s also the rider that he is. He is also very into fair play, so he didn’t ask for help – he didn’t ask for 15 bottles to pull him over. He just set his pace, took drinks to cool him down, and then just try to make it.

“It’s a pity for sure. He’s one of our leaders, one of the guys on the field that always makes a difference. And now he’s out….

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…

Mørkøv misses Tour de France time limit after 200km solo fight

Subscribe and Follow

Trending

Don’t miss

About VCP Cycling