Andersen Doubles Down at Tour de France, Wins Stage 19
CHAMPAGNOLE, France (AP) -- That’s deux for Soren Kragh Andersen at the Tour de France.
The Danish rider who won Stage 14 doubled down and raised his arms in victory again on Stage 19, with another cunningly timed attack.
Behind him, saving their last reserves of strength for a time trial on Saturday that will decide the Tour podium, race leader Primoz Roglic and his rivals preferred to coast to the finish while Andersen hared off for the prestige of the stage victory.
He left 11 other riders he’d been with in a breakaway for dead with an acceleration 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the finish in Champagnole in eastern France.
He held up two fingers at the line - one for each of his stage wins.
The focus now shifts to the time trial where Roglic will be aiming to secure his first Tour title, and the first at the 117-year-old race by a Slovenian.
‘’So far, so good,’’ he said. ‘’It’s all on me.’’
And if he suffers a mishap, Slovenia will still have a second chance, in the shape of Tadej Pogacar, who is second overall.
Just 57 seconds separate the countrymen after more than 3,300 kilometers (2,000 miles) of racing on French roads since the Aug. 29 start.
That cushion should be ample for Roglic, the winner of time trials last year at the Spanish Vuelta, which he won, and at the Giro d’Italia, where he finished third.
But his lead could wither with a tumble, a bad breakdown or other accident on the tricky course into the Vosges, the last of five mountain ranges scaled by this Tour.
At national championships in Slovenia in June, Pogacar beat Roglic by nine seconds in a time trial that also had a similar gain in altitude, about 700 meters (2,300 feet), but was much shorter, at just under 16 kilometers.
The Danish rider who won Stage 14 doubled down and raised his arms in victory again on Stage 19, with another cunningly timed attack.
Behind him, saving their last reserves of strength for a time trial on Saturday that will decide the Tour podium, race leader Primoz Roglic and his rivals preferred to coast to the finish while Andersen hared off for the prestige of the stage victory.
He left 11 other riders he’d been with in a breakaway for dead with an acceleration 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the finish in Champagnole in eastern France.
He held up two fingers at the line - one for each of his stage wins.
The focus now shifts to the time trial where Roglic will be aiming to secure his first Tour title, and the first at the 117-year-old race by a Slovenian.
‘’So far, so good,’’ he said. ‘’It’s all on me.’’
And if he suffers a mishap, Slovenia will still have a second chance, in the shape of Tadej Pogacar, who is second overall.
Just 57 seconds separate the countrymen after more than 3,300 kilometers (2,000 miles) of racing on French roads since the Aug. 29 start.
That cushion should be ample for Roglic, the winner of time trials last year at the Spanish Vuelta, which he won, and at the Giro d’Italia, where he finished third.
But his lead could wither with a tumble, a bad breakdown or other accident on the tricky course into the Vosges, the last of five mountain ranges scaled by this Tour.
At national championships in Slovenia in June, Pogacar beat Roglic by nine seconds in a time trial that also had a similar gain in altitude, about 700 meters (2,300 feet), but was much shorter, at just under 16 kilometers.