Stage 19

The road

At the start

Down from the Pyrenees, on to Cahors

Hautacam ended it. Jonas Vingegaard leads Tadej Pogačar by 3:26 and now wears the polka dots as well as yellow, with Geraint Thomas third at 8:00. Enric Mas does not start this morning, the thirty-seventh rider to leave this Tour. Today is 188 flat kilometres to Cahors with two fourth-category bumps in the last sixty, and the question is whether the sprinters' teams have anything left to control it.

How it was won

1. 1150 km to go

   Simmons takes the sprint in Auch

   A five-man move never gets much beyond ninety seconds on a hot, fast day, but Simmons leads them over the intermediate line with Philipsen snatching points from the bunch.

2. 253 km to go

   Echelons at the medieval city

   Simmons attacks the remnants of the break on the first climb and sheds Mohorič. The same rise splits the peloton, the front half gaining forty seconds with crosswinds making the chase awkward — until the road bends and the wind changes and it all comes back together.

3. 310 km to go

   Three go clear with the wind behind

   Pogačar tries a cheeky jump and Van Aert nails it back instantly. Duchesne counters, and out of that sparks Gougeard, Wright and Stuyven, who take half a minute on a brisk tailwind. The sprinters' teams are at panic stations with ten kilometres left.

4. 4At the line

   Laporte pounces in Cahors

   Van Aert burns his last matches to bring them into sight and Bodnar closes it. Wright attacks under the red kite, Stuyven surges and only succeeds in launching Christophe Laporte, who powers away for the first French stage win of the 2022 Tour.

The result