2023-07-20 20:01:00
There was no fifth success for Jasper Philipsen at Bourg-en-Bresse. In the poultry capital of Bresse, where sixteen years ago Tom Boonen was the last to raise his arms, the Campinois was not beaten by a competing sprinter. It was even he who was the fastest in the peloton, arriving for 4th place, only. The Belgian crossed the line on the heels of three of the four breakaways who remained out of reach of a peloton which never gave them more than a minute and a half of advantage in more than 180 kilometers of breakaway!
On the eighteenth day of the Tour, Kasper Asgreen indeed managed to bring the Soudal Quick Step team the stage victory after which they were chasing from Bilbao. The men of Patrick Lefevere thus continue at the end of the Tour a series of successful editions because Asgreen offered the Belgian formation its fiftieth stage victory in 21 participations. It was only during the 2009, 2011 and 2012 Tours that the team arrived empty-handed on the Champs Elysées.
“The Tour has been tough for us so far,” said the Dane. “We were counting on Fabio (Jakobsen) but he had to give up. We really fought the last two weeks, we sometimes went close, but we couldn’t hang on to this success. Personally, I had checked off this stage and that of tomorrow.”
Soudal Quick-Step saves his Tour de France, the intimidation of Philipsen and three retirements including van Aert: what to remember from the 18th stage
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“This victory means a lot to me. Over the past year, I have gone through very difficult times. This win brings me back to where I need to be.”
Kasper Asgreen, former Danish champion, winner of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, the E3 GP and especially the Tour of Flanders, also puts an end to the most difficult period of his career.
Last year, the Sandinave had fallen heavily in the Tour of Switzerland but, Grand Départ from Copenhagen obliges, the Dane had lined up a fortnight later on the Tour by not being at all 100%. He had also dragged his pain and his misery at the start of the race until Patrick Lefevere in person forced him to abandon the race. Until the beginning of this season, Asgreen had to fight to find a level, first honest, then more and more efficient.
“This victory means a lot to me,” he said, moved. “For a year, I have gone through very difficult times, this success is due to all the people who have helped me. This win brings me back to where I need to be. I did it thanks to the help of very good people who took time to help me on my return. I want to dedicate this stage to them, as to Dries Devenyns, his wife and his family, this is his last Tour in the last season of his career. It is from Paris-Roubaix that I feel that my body reacts as before and it is since these last weeks that I feel my front legs.
For once, the breakaway riders therefore played cat and mouse with the peloton and not the other way round, thus providing proof that it is not necessarily doomed and pointless to slip into a breakaway. At the exit of the Alps, everyone is exhausted, which Kasper Asgreen counted on at the start.
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“I have often found myself in the other role, that of the rider who chases behind the breakaways, I know that at the end of the Tour, the breakaway has a better chance of going to the end.
“Of course, the situation was not ideal, since there were only three of us (with Victor Campenaerts and Jonas Abrahamsen)”, he said. “I wanted to go with six, seven, eight other riders. I knew that in the last week of the Tour, when everyone is tired and that’s the case with this very tough Tour, it wouldn’t have been the first time that a breakaway would have been at the end. I believed in it, it took a combination of factors but also good legs in the four breakaways (the three had received reinforcement from Pascal Eenkhoorn, second Lotto Dstny). All four of us deserved the win. Honestly, we didn’t really talk to each other, we were involved, we knew that for this to work, we didn’t have to talk to each other, nor think, but give our all. It was the only chance one of us would win, but it wasn’t until the red flame, when Campenaerts gave his all for Eenkhoorn, that I thought victory was possible.
What also allowed the four fugitives to go to the end, it is the departure, from Wednesday evening, of Wout van Aert, returned to the country with Sarah, his wife. Leaving Courchevel by helicopter then aboard the private jet of the boss of the company Jumbo, the main sponsor of his team, the Campinois returned to the country to attend the upcoming birth of their second son. Van Aert present, his teammates would have given the necessary pedal strokes to annihilate the offensive.
“It’s important for our team to come away with a victory,” continued the Soudal Quick-Step rider. “We have a long history of success on the Tour, it should not stop. I often found myself in the other role, that of the rider who chases after the breakaways, I know that at the end of the Tour, the breakaway has more chance of going to the end.
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