Stage 19: Laporte Nabs Win for France
Flat stage: sprinter’s delight.Frenchman Christophe Laporte of Jumbo-Visma catches the sprint teams off guard and nabs a win after catching, and passing, the breakaway in the final kilometer of Stage 19. The flat stage was prime territory for dedicated sprint teams, but nobody seemed to notice when it was JV’s Laporte, not fastman Wout Van Aert (JV), who snuck off the front.
By the time Laporte caught the tired breakaway of three riders, it took just one more acceleration to separate himself for the win. It’s the only win for a Frenchman in the Tour de France so far with only two stages remaining.
Jumbo-Visma’s plan to launch Laporte instead of Van Aert seems to have hatched midstage. It worked to perfection on what was otherwise a by-the-numbers flat stage. It’s not clear that the JV media team was ready for its domestique Laporte to win stage honors. The Visma Twitter account, rather than the JV cycling account, fielded the post-race visual below, which bears a few indications of being a generic graphic rather than one designed for a Laporte TDF win in mind.
Compare to the ones clearly prepped in advance for Vingegaard and Van Aert Tour de France stage wins. Even Jumbo-Visma was caught sleeping!
A breakaway escaped early in the race, and American Quinn Simmons (TSF) put in a massive effort to stay out front, but it was inevitably pulled back in towards the end of the stage. He won the Most Combative prize for his heroics. A strong trio holds steady in overall rankings: Vingegaard (1st, JV), Pogacar (2nd, UAE), and G. Thomas (3rd, IGD).
Notable DNSs: Enric Mas (Movistar) with Covid-19. Movistar has had miserable luck at this Tour de France and now lost its highest placed rider overall. American Matteo Jorgenson is the highest placed Movistar rider after the departure of Mas.
