Tour de France stage 19 one of the fastest in history as teams fight for scraps

Tour de France stage 19 was one of the fastest in history
Tour de France stage 19 was one of the fastest in history (Image credit: ANNECHRISTINE POUJOULATAFP via Getty Images)

From the profile of stage 19 of the 2023 Tour de France, Friday's stage should have been a fairly unstressful trek through the foothills of the Jura mountains for the main overall contenders. Instead, a colossal fight for the breakaway that went on for 100 of the day's 172.8 kilometres made for a much more gruelling challenge and resulted in one of the fastest stages in history.

Once the definitive breakaway of 31 had gone, the peloton sat up and tried to recover its strength. But for the riders ahead, there was no such respite, with the pitched battle for the last transition stage of the 2023 race continuing all the way to the line, where Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) won in a photo finish.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.