2021 Tour de France Stage 19 Results & Recap
Stage 19 of the 2021 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
Mohoric wins stage 19
Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) took a solo victory on stage 19 of the Tour de France. Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) finished second and Casper Pedersen (Team DSM) was third after 207km of flat and fast racing.
"I can’t believe it," Mohoric said. "I was just trying do my best today. I tried to be attentive, especially if a break of eight guys or more went away and there were guys from Deceuninck-Quick Step or Alpecin-Fenix in it. We thought those teams might control for the sprint anyway. I saw this first group breaking away and decided to do a super big effort to bridge. When I reached the front, I spoke with guys in order to agree and go as fast as possible at the start of the stage. I think it was the best way to lead the break to the finish, as sprinter teams don’t have those many guys to control. Then, halfway through the stage, a big group jumped from the bunch. There were no teammates of mine there, and I was a bit disappointed. When they joined us, I tried to save some energy and then follow wheels all the way to the end. When Nils went on that climb, I was on my limit; almost exploded. I went for it with a big attack: just do one sprint more and then pace myself all the way to the finish. I was doing ridiculously low watts, but still I managed to keep my rivals at bay and win the stage."
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) starts tomorrow's 30.8km time trial a hefty 5'45" ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) is third overall at 5'51".
"It is huge to stand with Eddy Merckx on the podium. He is a hero in cycling. I don’t consider myself as a hero yet, but I hope I am inspiring lots of kids to ride their bikes. There were a few crashes and splits at the start of the stage today. It is really not nice to begin a race like this. We then kept the bunch quiet for a bit, but after the sprint we went on full attack mode. It was a pretty strange race. But then a group went away, and the bunch turned quiet again. For me it is really nice to have a cycling boom in Slovenia. We have always wanted cycling to succeed in Slovenia. Whenever I come home, it is fantastic to see how many people ride their bikes now in my country. I did a reckon of tomorrow’s ITT and it is a very fast course, not really complicated. I kind of like it. Today the legs feel really tired from yesterday’s stage. We will see how I sleep today and how I wake up tomorrow… But, of course, I will give it (victory) a go."\n
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.
