Matej Mohorič dived for the line in Poligny at the same moment as Kasper Asgreen, but he had to wait a little longer to learn that he had won stage 19 of the Tour de France. Tears welled up in the Slovenian's eyes when the verdict of the photo finish reached him shortly afterwards.
"It means a lot because it's hard and cruel to be a pro cyclist," Mohorič explained. "You suffer a lot in preparation, you sacrifice your life and your family, and you do everything you can to be ready. Then after a couple of days, you realise everyone is so incredibly strong that it's hard to follow the wheels sometimes."
Mohorič won two stages on the 2021 Tour, but he struggled at last year's race, learning afterwards that he had been suffering from Epstein-Barr syndrome. His 2023 season, meanwhile, had begun with a strong display at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but his spring campaign was ultimately derailed by a succession of crashes.
Although Mohorič claimed a stage win and second overall at last month's Tour of Slovenia – "The best legs of my lifetime," he said – the build-up to this Tour de France was utterly overshadowed by the tragic death of his Bahrain Victorious teammate Gino Mäder following a crash at that week's Tour de Suisse.
"We spend more time with teammates than family sometimes, and we feel really close to them and attached," Mohorič said in his post-stage press conference in Poligny. "Fortunately, I was not in Suisse, because I don't know how I would have handled that situation. It puts everything in perspective and makes you doubt your career and what you do."
Mohorič is the third Bahrain Victorious rider to win a stage of the 2023 Tour after Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels. He followed his teammates in paying tribute to the late Mäder after his victory, explaining that he had been inspired by the Swiss rider en route to his third-place finish on the Puy de Dôme on stage 9.
"In 2021, I wouldn't have contested for the win on a climb like that, but I just smashed myself up the climb because I knew Gino was a climber," he said. "I wanted to give my best because he can't anymore."
Breakaway
With an explosive stage in the Vosges and the Champs-Élysées sprint to come this weekend, Friday's hilly run to Poligny effectively marked Mohorič's final opportunity to claim a win on this Tour. Despite the rolling terrain, the stage was run off at a searing average speed of 49.13kph, and Mohorič maintained that his powers of endurance ultimately came to the fore.
After making the break of 34 riders that ultimately went clear, Mohorič later joined strongmen Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Ben O'Connor (AG2R-Citroën) on the attack over the Côte d'Ivory with 30km to go, and the trio would ultimately contest the finish in Poligny.
O'Connor opened the sprint from a distance, mindful of his relative lack of speed, but Asgreen came around him within sight of the line. The Dane looked poised for his second stage win in as many days only for Mohorič to pip him to the verdict.
"If I sprinted with Kasper 100 times in training, I'd lose all 100 times," smiled Mohorič, who suggested his had been a triumph of detached, analytical thinking. "I might not have the best peak power output or the best sprint, but I can do pretty well in all aspects, so on a mixed stage with a bit of everything, I score well in all aspects."
"I get very emotional after a race, but I'm not emotional in the race. Instead, I try to assess the situation as if I were a directeur sportif and make the best decisions. Some riders get more emotional, and they make mistakes more often. I try to imagine the way the race looks on TV or from a helicopter. I'm probably more analytical than the other riders."
That kind of critical thinking has also informed Mohorič's decision to forgo next month's Road World Championships road race in Glasgow, despite his sparkling form. He won the rainbow bands as a junior in Valkenburg in 2012 and at under-23 level in Florence a year later, but he has passed up on selection in the Slovenian team for the elite road race this year.
"I won't be at the World Championships simply because I don't believe I can beat the best riders in the world on that course," Mohorič said, explaining that the lack of climbing on the course limited his prospects of competing against Wout van Aert et al.
"In a Grand Tour, it's different, because everybody is on their hands and knees physically and mentally after three weeks. But this World Championships is like the Tour de France for Classics riders, and I just don't think I would be competitive. I don't want to go to the Worlds to participate. If I would go, I would go there with dreams of winning."
