2018 Tour de France Stage 19 Results & Recap
Stage 19 of the 2018 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Primoz Roglic wins final mountain stage\nBy Clara Beard
Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Lotto NL Jumbo) glided to victory on the downhill descent of the col d’Aubisque, keeping his GC rivals at bay and moving into the top three overall in front of tomorrow’s individual time trial. Roglic finished 19 seconds ahead of second place Geraint Thomas, who sprinted into Laruns to nab some extra seconds off his competitors on the final mountain day of the Tour de France.
“It’s crazy but it’s a very nice feeling. I had great legs today,” Roglic said. “I really tried a lot of times. It was perfect. Going downhill, I opened a little gap and I knew it would be hard for anyone to close it, so I pushed harder and harder. When I heard I had ten seconds lead or something, just 5km before the finish, I gave it all till the end. I haven’t thought of the podium. I was fighting for the stage win and it worked out very well. The time trial is tailor-made for me but it’s the same for everyone. Tomorrow it’ll be a new day and a new focus. I’m not bothered about Tom Dumoulin or Chris Froome. I’m bothered about myself.”
Thomas now leads the overall by 2:05 ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb). Roglic has moved up to third at 2:24, and Chris Froome sits at 2:37, making it a tight race for the podium.
“The boys were great today,” Thomas said. “We were put under a lot of pressure, yet we kept riding well, together and calm. It wasn’t good to hear that Froomey was struggling but the other guys weren’t working full gas together so he could come back. Roglic was the strongest so I used that to my advantage to stick to Dumoulin’s back wheel. As for tomorrow, I take nothing for granted: this buffer allows me to be take less risks, but I can’t relax. Roglic and Dumoulin are definitely two good rivals. I just need to get out there and ride as hard as I can. It is a solid course. I did it three times after the Dauphiné and I saw there were very steep ramps everywhere, so you need to save energy until the very end. It feels like the eve of the Olympic final in London with a lot of tension.”
At the start of the day in Lourdes, a break formed somewhat immediately including: Silvan Dillier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie). They were eventually joined by Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Bob Jungels (Quick Step) and Tanel Kangert (Astana) at around 20 kilometres in.
The peloton was eager to get more riders up the road, so Arthur Vichot (Groupama-FDJ), Warren Barguil and Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Samsic), Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), Andrey Amador and Daniele Bennati (Movistar), Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step), Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) also bridged, making it a large group of 18 riders who were allowed a maximum advantage of 5’07”.
The amount of climbing naturally thinned the breakaway, and Zakarin, Mikel Landa (Movistar) and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) attacked on the col du Tourmalet making the new leaders.
It was the final climb that saw the real fight for the stage win develop. LottoNL-Jumbo’s duo of Roglic and Kruijswijk launched attack after attack on Team Sky, eventually cracking Froome with 25 kilometres to go. At the crest of the col d’Aubisque, Roglic finally got a small gap and held on for the 20 kilometre downhill section into Laruns.
Get our full coverage of the Tour de France and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
