Matej Mohorič's reaction to winning stage 19 of Tour de France had it all; from the raw emotion of overcoming a brutal race only to claim victory to even feeling sorry for his rivals' inability to take a stage and of course remembering his deceased Bahrain Victorious team mate Gino Mäder.
The 172.8km race from Moirans-en-Montagne to Poligny served up one of the most action-packed and aggressive stages of the 2023 Tour; groups all over the road as teams with no stage wins desperately tried to take one and those with wins already still looking for more.
In the end it boiled down to three men up front being chased by a nine-man chase group that was packed with talent.
Up from was eventual stage winner Mohorič with yesterday's victor Kasper Asgreen (Soudal QuickStep) and Ben O'Connor, the AG2R Citroën Team Australian who has fallen short in his general classification aspirations but is still determined for fight for a stage victory.
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Just 39 seconds down on the line was the chase group which included, among others: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek), Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
While O'Connor led out the sprint, Asgreen was immediately onto him and looked like he was going to take a second win on consecutive days until Mohorič came off his wheel and just pipped him on the line with a combination of pure grunt and a better lunge.
But it was the winner's emotion afterwards that really stole the show; Mohorič clearly have questioned him and been forced to dig deep to ever survive this far into the Tour.
"It means a lot because it's hard and cruel to be a pro cyclist," Mohorič said. "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.
"If I sprinted with Kasper 100 times in training, I'd lose all 100 times. 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.
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"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."
There was no change in the overall, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) still leading Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 7:35, with Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) in 3rd at 10:45.
