Belgian Victor Campenaerts wins Tour de France Stage 18
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Lotto Dstny's Victor Campenaerts celebrates winning Stage 18 of the Tour de France.
REUTERS
BARCELONNETTE – An emotional Victor Campenaerts had only one person to thank after he won Stage 18 of the Tour de France on July 18 as an escape dominated a race around the spectacular Lake Serre-Poncon in the Alps.
The Lotto-Dstny rider timed his attack on a three-man sprint to the finish to perfection, clinching victory in the 179.5km hilly stage from Gap to Barcelonnette.
Campenaerts was in the leading trio with Michal Kwiatkowski and Matteo Vercher, with the Belgian biding his time behind the two riders before exploding into a powerful sprint in the final 200m to take the win.
“As a real professional you have to ride the Tour, you have to finish the Tour de France,” said Campenaerts, who was in tears before he started his post-race interview.
“Winning a stage is everyone’s dream... I’ve been dreaming of this for a very long time.
“My girlfriend supported me every day, I became a father and I saw only blue skies. Her support is incredible.
“I went for nine weeks on an altitude camp. She was highly pregnant, so she is the hero in this story. I am so grateful that she made this possible, that I had a super long altitude camp to prepare for this Tour de France.
“I am looking so much to go home to my girlfriend and my son.”
He had already wept at the finish line as he spoke with his girlfriend via video immediately after his win.
The 32-year-old was particularly emotional as he also said that he had a “verbal agreement” with his team about extending his contract but was ignored. His girlfriend’s support kept him going but he did credit Lotto-Dstny eventually.
“I played it very smart (today). Also the team gave me a lot of confidence, everyone knew I had very good legs,” Campenaerts added.
“I will be leaving the team, but I’m so happy that I can finish off with maybe the highlight of my career. And we’re going to celebrate tonight.”
The chasing pack with riders such as Jai Hindley eventually crossed the line 22 seconds behind.
Tadej Pogacar and the yellow jersey group finished nearly 14 minutes behind as they played it safe and conserved their energy ahead of the next two mountain stages. The Slovenian retained the yellow jersey and leads Jonas Vingegaard by 3min 11sec.
The Tour now heads into the Alps and Stage 19 on July 19 is a 144.6km ride from Embrun to Isola 2000. AFP, REUTERS
