Victor Campenaerts is one of the peloton’s most engaging talkers, and his gift of the gab extends to social media, where his offbeat daily video diary with Lotto-Dstny roommate Jasper De Buyst has gathered something of a cult following on this Tour de France.
The former Hour Record holder is also well capable of expressing himself on the bike, of course, as a palmarès with two European time trial titles and a stage win at the Giro d’Italia testifies. On stage 18, Campenaerts showcased his strength by playing a key role in helping the breakaway unexpectedly fend off the sprinters in Bourg-en-Bresse.
Campenaerts spent most of the finale sacrificing himself on behalf of teammate Pascal Eenkhoorn, the faster of the two Lotto-Dstny riders in the four-man move. Although Eenkhoorn ultimately had to settle for second place behind winner Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Campenaerts could draw some satisfaction from the part he played in ensuring the escapees upset the odds and held off the bunch.
The Belgian explained afterwards that the stage had worked out precisely as planned for Lotto-Dstny, save for the final metres, where Asgreen had just a little too much for Eenkhoorn in the sprint.
“On the bus, we had a clear plan. We just had to be in the breakaway today, there was no other option,” said Campenaerts, who duly escaped in the opening kilometres with Asgreen and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X). “We said if it was a ten-man breakaway, we would go full for me, but if it was four guys or less, then we’d go very easy and send someone across halfway through the stage.”
Easier said than done, but Lotto-Dstny managed to pull it off, with the leading trio’s advantage never climbing beyond 1:48. With 65km remaining, and despite the obvious discouragement from green jersey Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who attempted to block the move, Eenkhoorn attacked from the peloton.
Out ahead, meanwhile, Campenaerts dropped back to pace his teammate across to the break. “From this moment we put the pace on, and we worked very well, there was good collaboration in the group,” he explained.
In the final hour of racing, a coalition of sprinters’ teams – including Alpecin-Deceuninck, Jayco-Alula and Lidl-Trek – worked to reel in the escapees. The flat terrain and open roads hardly helped their cause, nor did they headwind, but they stuck resolutely to their task.
With 20km to go, the gap was 40 seconds, and their race seemed run. With 10km remaining, it was down to 20 seconds,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…