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New dad Victor Campenaerts celebrated an emotional first career Tour de France win on stage 18 as Tadej Pogacar kept his lead in the yellow jersey.
Breakaway specialist Campenaerts got his timing right in a three-up sprint against Tour debutant Matteo Vercher and Michal Kwiatkowski to win in Barcelonnette before immediately joining a tearful video call with his girlfriend Nel and their baby boy Gustaaf, a little over a month old.
A heavily-pregnant Nel had joined Campenaerts on a nine-week training camp at altitude in the build-up to this Tour, and gave birth to Gustaaf in Spain’s Sierra Nevada just a couple of weeks before the opening stage.
Struggling to speak through his emotions, the 32-year-old Campenaerts said: “The support I have from my girlfriend is incredible.
“She’s always there for me, nine weeks on an altitude camp, she was highly pregnant, she gave birth to our son at the bottom of a climb in Granada. She is the hero in this story.”
Campenaerts spoke about the “very difficult time” he has been through since the end of the Classics campaign, believing he had a contract extension agreed with Lotto-Dstny before talks abruptly stopped. He is now expected to join Visma-Lease A Bike next season.
“I was ignored (by the team) for a long time, it was very difficult when I was on a long altitude camp but my girlfriend was there, she supported me every day when highly pregnant,” he said.
“I was struggling to finish my training schedule but I changed my mind, I talked, I have a bright future in cycling, I became a father and everything is blue skies, only blue skies.”
The Belgian had done his best to feign fatigue in the finale – admitting to “playing a little bit dirty” with his facial expressions – but he was merely holding back before bursting forward in the last few hundred metres to take a popular victory.
Pogacar continues to lead by three minutes and 11 seconds from defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, with Remco Evenepoel just under two minutes further back in third place.
The main peloton rolled over the line some 13 and a half minutes later with Pogacar for once resisting the urge to attack his rivals, instead keeping his powder dry for a monster Alpine stage on Friday which will take on the Cime de la Bonette, the highest paved road in Europe at an elevation of 2,802 metres.
With that to come, this 179.5km stage from Gap to Barcelonnette was billed as the last chance for the breakaway favourites and they were determined not to waste their opportunity, with 38 riders peeling off the front of the peloton on the Col du Festre, the first of five categorised climbs on the day.
Geraint Thomas had joked before the start that although tasked with marking the early attacks he was hoping to be in a move that failed to get away so he could have an easier ride.
There was no such luck for the Welshman, who joined Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Kwiatkowski in a powerful group that also included the likes of Wout Van Aert, Jai Hindley, Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy.
With the peloton sitting up and allowing the gap to yawn into the double figures, the attacks started in the break with 65km to go.
Healy tried his luck first, sparking a series of counters – including a couple from Thomas which ended with Kwiatkowski escaping along with Campenaerts and Vercher.
Hindley was part of a five-strong group that tried to bridge over on the long, uncategorised rise towards Barcelonnette, but although they should have had the horsepower they lacked the cohesion and the front trio stayed away.
