Matej Mohorič has taken another stage win on the Tour de France for Bahrain Victorious, just two days after the French police searched his team’s hotel rooms and vehicles.
While those searches were part of an anti-doping inquiry,
Mohorič has been outspoken at the Tour, saying he has nothing to hide and
insisting that he and his team mates would be racing full-on.
And today after taking a solo win on stage 19, his second
victory on the race, the Slovenian national champion said the police raid was uppermost
in his mind as he approached the finish in Libourne, one minute
clear after 207km of racing.
“I was thinking mostly about what happened two days in the evening, when I felt like a criminal, with all the police coming to our hotel,” he said reacting to his win today.
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“From one point of view, it’s a good thing because it means that there’s still control over the peloton and they are checking all the teams. Of course, they didn’t find anything because we have nothing to hide, no.
“I’m a little bit disappointed with the system because... it’s not a nice thing when the police walks into your room and searches all your belongings. When you have nothing to hide it feels a little bit weird. It’s never happened to me before.
"When they go through your personal photos, through the photos of your family, through your phone, through your messages, it feels a little bit like this. But then, at the end of the day, I have nothing to hide so I don't care too much about other people checking through my stuff. It's OK at the end, I hope."
A large breakaway dominated the stage today after a frantic start as the teams who had not yet won a stage on the Tour were trying to get up the road. Mohorič was in the initial six-man breakaway that was caught by 14 others.
And once that 20-group formed and began working, the hard
chasing that had been going on at the front of the bunch stopped; Israel
Start-Up Nation having been most keen to chase for Andre Greipel.
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When the chasing was knocked off, it was clear the stage
win would go to one of the riders out front.
With just under 45km to go the breakaway men began
attacking each other but it was Mohorič who made the decisive move; attacking
with 25km remaining and riding to victory.
As he crossed the line in triumph he made a zipping gesture, as if to silence the critics, and was then defiant in his post-stage remarks. He later clarified his zipping gesture was not intended to suggest he did not respect the authorities carrying out the investigation.
All 20 riders in the breakaway survived out front, with Mohorič
a massive 21 minutes ahead of the peloton containing race leader Tadej Pogačar
and led in by his UAE-Team Emirates team mates.
Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) was 2nd on
the stage, finishing 58 seconds down on the winner and on the same time was 3rd
place Casper Pedersen (Team DSM), with Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) in 4th just
four seconds later.
Then came a six-man group, with Nils Politt (Bora-hansgrohe) leading them in for 5th some 1:08 down, from Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Valgren (EF Education-Nippo), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo).
The result means Tadej Pogačar still holds yellow going into tomorrow's stage 20 TT - some 30.8km into Saint-Émilion, where he will look to take his fourth stage win of the race.
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