Matej Mohoric fought tears of reduction after edging Kasper Asgreen to win the Tour de France’s closest ever stage finish on Friday.
The Slovenian rider broke down after successful, fought tears throughout the award ceremony for the nineteenth stage, and once more struggled along with his feelings as he spoke about his completely timed race – the fifth quickest stage in Tour historical past.
Few watching had been sure who received as Mohorič completed solely 4 thousandths of a second forward of Asgreen in the tightest finish ever recorded.
Mohoric coated his face and sobbed when affirmation got here that he clinched his third ever stage win.
(*19*) Mohoric mentioned. “You suffer a lot in preparation, you sacrifice your life, your family. You do everything you can to get ready. And then after a couple of days, you realize that everyone is just so incredibly strong, that it’s just hard to follow the wheels sometimes.”
Mohoric referred to his Bahrain teammates’ exhausting work, to his personal struggling, to rivals’ struggling, and to teammate Gino Mäder, who died after crashing right into a ravine at the Tour de Suisse final month.
“Sometimes you feel like you don’t belong here because just everyone is so incredibly strong that you struggle to hold wheel sometimes,” Mohorič mentioned. “You know that the guy who is pulling is suffering just as much as you do. It’s just cruel to then be able to follow the decision to attack when Kasper went.”
Ben O’Connor had been first amongst the three breakaways to assault for the line however he was overhauled by Asgreen and Mohoric, who appeared to cross at the similar time.
“He was so incredibly strong,” Mohoric mentioned of Asgreen. “He went on the attack yesterday and won the stage, and today, to have the will and the determination to do it all over again – you just feel that you don’t belong here. And then I followed him. I knew I had to make everything perfect. And I tried my best, not just for myself, also for Gino and for the team. And then you almost feel like you betrayed them because you beat them.”
Two stages stay together with Sunday’s finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
⏪ The ultimate KM of a high-intensity stage, and the closest finish of the #TDF2023 to this point.
⏪ Le dernier KM d’une étape à haute intensité, et l’arrivée la plus serrée du #TDF2023 jusqu’à présent. pic.twitter.com/ZwZg9n91oR
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 21, 2023
