Laporte ends French wait for stage win
CHRISTOPHE LAPORTE delivered an overdue French win on the 109th Tour de France as Fred Wright was again the nearly man. Laporte’s Jumbo-Visma team-mate Jonas Vingegaard retained the race lead by more than three minutes, albeit losing five seconds to Tadej Pogacar, who sprinted to take fifth. Jumbo-Visma go into today’s penultimate stage looking to carry the yellow, green and polka-dot jerseys to Paris. Although the profile of stage 19 looked flat it did not tell the true story of an undulating 188km route from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors, as the threatened crosswinds stayed away. After the first break of the day had been caught, Wright joined Alexis Gougeard and Jasper Stuyven in slipping off the front with 35km to go and they stayed clear to the flamme rouge. Even as the peloton bore down it was a disorganised chase, and Wright stamped on the pedals as the drag to the finish began. The 23-year-old Londoner had chased victory from breaks on stage eight into Lausanne, then into Megeve two days later. In stage 13 in Saint-Etienne he was within sight of the line when Mads Pedersen powered away, and it was a similar story here as Laporte, coming out of the pack, carried superior speed on to the climb and rode away, winning from Jasper Philipsen and Alberto Dainese as Wright faded. ‘Fair play to Laporte, he came around with some speed,’ said Wright. ‘He’s got legs.’ French fears had been growing of a first Tour without a home win since 1999, but Laporte’s burst of speed put that to bed. ‘It’s important to get a French win,’ said the 29-year-old of his first Grand Tour stage win. ‘If it makes the crowd and my family happy, I’m happy too.’