Victor Campenaerts culminates with victory a stage only for select riders

It was practically a given, stage 18 of the Tour de France 2024, which began to enter the Maritime Alps as an appetizer to the two upcoming big stages, was fertile ground for a high-caliber breakaway. And, as is often the case in these breakaways, the most unexpected attack ended up triumphing, not from the legs of an unknown rider but from a cyclist who possesses as much class as watts, a Victor Campenaerts who adds another victory to his already prestigious reputation.

High-level breakaway and calm among the favorites before the final outcome of the Tour de France 2024

A new medium mountain stage in the Tour de France 2024 that led the cyclists from Gap to the Alps reaching a town with as much Tour flavor as Barcelonette, at the foot of climbs like Vars, which the peloton will ascend tomorrow; Pra Loup, which was the "tomb of the cannibal" in the 1975 Tour de France or the imposing Bonette, the highest road in France and which will also be present in tomorrow's stage.

However, in this approach to what will come in the next two days, the Tour had prepared a medium mountain profile, full of small climbs, both the 5 categorized ones and the multitude of ramps and ascents that could also be categorized. A terrain that, in the third week of the Tour de France 2024, was almost certain to be for a breakaway led by the cyclists who still have legs.

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As expected, the start was once again fast-paced, but the group was formed earlier than expected, practically a mini-peloton of 37 cyclists with protagonists such as Wout van Aert, Michal Kwiatkowski, Geraint Thomas, Jai Hindley, Richard Carapaz, Ben Healy, Alex Aranburu, Oier Lazkano, or Louis Meintjes, who maintained good harmony and, with the approval of the peloton as none of the members were remotely dangerous for the general classification, they gained a significant advantage, a clear sign that the peloton was going to take it easy.

The breakaway began to split when there were 65 kilometers left to the finish, on the ascent to the penultimate climb of the day, and, as expected, the protagonist was an restless rider like Ben Healy. His move only served to increase the pace of the breakaway as he was caught, but also to ignite the spark for others to try like Kwiatkowski or Tobias Johannessen. Aramburu and Thomas also tried in the descent, without success.

In the final climb, the trend of unsuccessful attacks continued until, when calm seemed to return to the group of escapees, almost at the top, Kwiatkowski attacked again in yet another move that seemed to be going nowhere. Victor Campenaerts, Matteo Vercher, and Toms Skujins caught up to him and launched themselves with everything in the descent, so much so that the Lidl-Trek rider was unable to keep up with the pace and fell behind.

Then the unexpected happened, those little things that ultimately decide races. When the group was about to catch up, led by Johannessen, he crashed in one of the curves, giving breathing room to the trio at the front. Behind, a small chasing group remained with riders like Oier Lazkano, Krists Neilands, Toms Skujins, Jai Hindley, and Van Aert's teammate in Visma-Lease a Bike, Bart Lemmen.

Lemmen was the discordant element due to his decision not to pull and wait for Van Aert to arrive. This prevented, despite the efforts of a strong Oier Lazkano, from closing the gap with the three leaders when they could have done so, as at the end of the descent they were only 10 seconds behind, while behind them, the vigilance on Van Aert caused the main group of escapees to start losing time, falling more than a minute behind.

The same began to happen among the chasers, so with 17 kilometers to go, with a difference of over half a minute, it was clear that the victory would fall to one of the three at the front.

And the chosen one to win the stage was a gladiator of the peloton like Victor Campenaerts, despite the favoritism being on Kwiatkowski. The Polish rider entered the final kilometer leading the trio for the sprint, a good surveillance but, at 150 meters from the finish, the Belgian launched with tremendous power and none could do anything to challenge him for the victory.

A very emotional triumph for Victor Campenaerts, who was visibly moved at the finish line while video calling his girlfriend and newborn son. The Lotto-Dstny rider explained in the post-race interview, making efforts to hold back tears, that after the classics, the situation with the team became tense and an agreement for his renewal was not reached. Therefore, he decided to change his focus and concentrate on Sierra Nevada for 9 weeks.

 

 

 

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A concentration where he was accompanied by his pregnant girlfriend, who was his main support. In fact, during the concentration, they had to go down to Granada where little Campenaerts was born. A stage in the Tour de France 2024 that, as he confessed, was a dream come true and that opens up a "horizon of blue skies" for him, the perfect culmination to a Tour de France as a result of the great atmosphere in the team. Undoubtedly, a tremendously exciting outcome for one of the most determined riders in the peloton.

As for the peloton, there was not much of a story, in fact, when Victor Campenaerts crossed the finish line victoriously, he still had 10 kilometers to go, finishing this 18th stage of the Tour de France 2024 almost 14 minutes behind the winner.

Stage 18 Classification

1. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) 4h10'20''
2. Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) +00''
3. Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) +00''
4. Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek) +22''
5. Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team) +22''
6. Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) +22''
7. Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech) +22''
8. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +22''
9. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +37''
10. Michael Mathews (Jayco-AlUla) +37''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 74h45'17''
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +3'11''
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +5'09''
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +12'57''
5. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +13'24''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +13'30''
7. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +15'41''
8. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +17'51''
9. Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech) +18'15''
10. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) +18'35''