Surviving a break that started just 10km into the stage, Kasper Asgreen (Soudal – Quick-Step) won the final sprint against his 3 attack group mates to win Stage 18 of the 2023 Tour de France. Pascal Eenkhorn and Jonas Abrahamsen completed the podium.
Stage 18 of the 110th Tour de France was a 184.9km race from Moûtiers to Bourg-en-Bresse. While there were some bumps along the way, the day was a relief from the climbing challenges of the last two days and was expected to end in a sprinter’s shootout. Most are expecting Jasper Philipsen, still wearing the green sprinter’s jersey, to go for his 5th stage win in the 2023 race, but there’s also a possibility that a break could stay away.
We learned that Wout van Aert Wout has left the race to be with his wife Sarah who will give birth to their second child soon. This was his 5th Tour de France, all consecutively, and it’s the first time he doesn’t win at least one stage.
Kasper Asgreen made the first attack of the stage with Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) soon joining him. They stayed away, but the peloton was keeping them on a short leash, only allowing a 1 minute gap by km 30.
At the back of the race, Simon Geschke is getting dropped in the climb to Chambéry-le-Haut. He’s been affected by sickness, but he makes it back to the pack. He later abandoned the race.
There’s an acceleration at the head of the peloton with Pascal Eenkhorn, Simon Guglielmi and Quinten Hermans, then Anthony Turgis on the côte de Boissieu, the second categorized climb of the day. The time gap decreases to 30″.
With 65km to go, Pascal Eenkhorn has gone clear off the peloton to chase the leading trio. Campenaerts hung back to wait for his teammate, letting Asgreen and Abrahamsen form a leading duo 40” ahead of the peloton. With 58km to, they were all back together, still maintaining a 40″ gap.
38km to go and the leaders had managed to open their gap to a little over a minute. No one expects this break to stay away.
30km to go and the break had seen their lead drop back to around 40 seconds. Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek took over from Alpecin, Jayco and DSM at the head of the peloton. Still, the average pace over the last hour was 50.6 km/h. The leaders were not making it easy!
Asgreen, Abrahamsen, Campenaerts, and Eenkhorn were holding a lead of just 30 second with 15km to go. The pace is up to 55 km/h in the chase from the peloton. The leaders would get a tailwind with 5km to go, and the peloton knew it.
4km to go and the gap was just 10 seconds. The peloton had the leaders in their gunsights.
The leaders, quickly passing off the front position to each other, were pushing a 64km/h pace with less than 2km to go.
With the peloton breathing down their necks, the break stayed away, with Kasper Asgreen winning the sprint.
“It’s incredible! It means so much for me to take a stage here at the Tour, especially after all the problems I had since last summer. I came a long way and this result wouldn’t have been possible without all the people who helped me. I want to dedicate this win to those who trusted me and stayed by my side, but also to Dries. He is racing his final Tour de France in his last season as a pro, he was very emotional at the finish, and we will miss him”, an elated Kasper said after his huge day.
“The situation wasn’t ideal for us. I would have preferred to have gone with seven or eight riders, but being the last week of the race and coming off some really hard stages in the mountains I didn’t completely rule out the possibility of going all the way. I wouldn’t have done it without Pascal, Victor and Jonas, they all did amazing out there. We rode the whole stage like a team time trial and put everything into it”, Kasper explained after Soudal Quick-Step’s 50th victory at Le Tour. “Our team worked really hard these weeks, and despite all the setbacks we’ve had here, we kept the morale high and now we are incredibly happy with this win and with showing that the Wolfpack spirit remains the same.”
After the stage, Eenkhorn and Campenaerts commented on their effort to go for the win:
“I think we executed our plan to perfection”, says Pascal Eenkhoorn. “I hoped that more riders would join me in bridging across but nobody was on my wheel. I also needed Victor to get to the front but once we got there, we went full gas. The advantage was never really big but at the end of the Tour you know there’s always a chance. Victor really rode crazy fast and ensured that we could stay ahead in the final. The sprint was just an honest one and a second place is a pity but if you watch the sprint you have to admit that Asgreen was stronger.”
“We had marked these stages. Sadly, we could just not get the win but we played it perfectly. It seemed like an impossible task to hold off the bunch but if you don’t try… The most combative rider award is a consolation prize but being on the Tour podium is always nice”, says Campenaerts. “I got to the front in the final kilometre but had to let go at 500 metres from the line, hoping to make them nervous and go early. That didn’t succeed and a second place is bittersweet but we can be proud of our performance today.”
2023 Tour de France Stage 18 Brief Results
- Kasper Asgreen (Soudal – Quick-Step) @ 4h06’48”
- Pascal Eenkhorn (Lotto – Dstny) s.t
- Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) s.t.
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Deceuninck) s.t.
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 18:
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) @ 72h4’39”
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 7’35”
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) @ 10’45”
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