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Matej Mohorič earns brace of 2021 Tour de France stage wins

Slovenian takes the tenth solo stage victory of the 108th edition

Photo by: Sirotti
July 16, 2021
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Matej Mohorič became the latest 2021 Tour de France rider to solo to victory from a breakaway, earning his second win of the race on Friday. Mohorič’s triumph was Bahrain-Victorious’ third of the 108th edition. The tenth solo triumph of the race made him the third rider to win more than one stage and the second Slovenian to take a victory. Mohorič’s compatriot Tadej Pogačar kept safe in the yellow jersey with two stages to go.

You can watch the 108th edition of the Tour de France at FloBikes.

The Course

There was only one Cat. 4 climb near the start town of Mourenx but many little ripples along the 207-km route.

Michael Woods and Angel Lopez didn’t start Friday’s stage to prepare for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games men’s road race on July 27.

With several teams desperate to have something to show for their efforts at the Tour and time running out, it seemed like the kind of stage that would elicit a huge breakaway. Instead only a sextet managed to get away early. Two crashes involved the likes of sixth-place Enric Mas and eighth-place Guillaume Martin. Pogačar and Michal Kwiatkowski insisted that Alpecin-Fenix ease off at the front so riders could get back on.

After the intermediate sprint point, where Michael Matthews crept closer to Mark Cavendish in the green jersey competition, a couple of attacks tried to form a chase group to bridge over to the breakaway. Finally after around 15 km a group of 15 bounced away. With 100 km to race, the two groups merged to make a 20-strong breakaway one minute ahead of the peloton.

Israel Start-up Nation and BikeExchange toiled for a while to bring back the breakaway but eventually gave up with 81 km remaining.

With 45 km to race, the fugitives started to attack one another. After kilometres of skirmishing, Stage 7 winner Mohorič pulled clear.

There was nothing the Slovenian’s breakmates could do to pull him back, and when he crossed the line in Libourne, he earned his fourth Grand Tour stage win.

Saturday is the longer of the two time trials. Could Pogačar win them both?

2021 Tour de France Stage 19
1) Matej Mohorič (Slovenia/Bahrain-Victorious) 4:19:17
2) Christophe Laporte (France/Cofidis) +0:58
3) Casper Pedersen (Denmark/Team DSM) s.t.

2021 Tour de France GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates)
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +5:45
3) Richard Carapaz (Ecuador/Ineos Grenadiers) +5:51
4) Ben O’Connor (Australia/AG2R-Citroën) +8:18
5) Wilco Kelderman (The Netherlands/Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:50
6) Enric Mas (Spain/Movistar) +10:11
7) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana-Premier Tech) +11:22
8) Guillaume Martin (France/Cofidis) +11:56
9) Pello Bilbao (Spain/Bahrain-Victorious) +13:48
10) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/EF Education-Nippo) +16:25