Back to stage 18 Moutiers > Bourg en Bresse

It has become a tradition, an unmiss...able event of this 110th edition of the Grande Boucle: the attack on "Campi", from kilometer 0. For the antepenultimate time since the start of the Tour, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) decides to spend the day at the front of the race, accompanied by two other brave men.
After the terrible alpine day of the day before and its 5100 meters of elevation gain, this transition stage seems promised to the sprinters. Jasper Philipsen is the big favorite. The peloton leaves no room for maneuver to the fugitives since the breakaway will never take more than 1min30 in advance.
Already in trouble prematurely yesterday on the first slopes of the Col des Saisies, Simon Geschke was still let go 124 km from the finish. Sick, the wearer of the polka dot jersey for more than 10 days in 2022 throws in the towel 60 km later. In 48 hours, he is the third rider from the Cofidis team to leave the Tour route: after Alexis Renard who suffered a broken elbow during the time trial and Anthony Perez who did not start the same morning.
For its part, the Lotto-Dstny team is untenable. Determined to make life difficult for the "big thighs" of the peloton, Pascal EenKhoorn places several attacks at the head of the peloton. Mission doubly successful! He pushes the green jersey to the end as the latter tries to intimidate him by pressing him against the edge of the road, then manages in a second time to join the trio of fugitives, thus finding Victor, his teammate.
In the intermediate sprint, the Lotto-Dstny rank 2nd and 3rd, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) 5th. The new quartet is definitely giving the peloton a hard time. For more than 40 kilometers, the gratin of the rollers (in the country ... of the Bresse chicken) keeps the teams of sprinters at bay at only 40 seconds. The tension is palpable!
In the final kilometers, Victor Campenaerts literally sacrificed himself to give the breakaway a chance to win. Unimaginably, the sprinters are trapped and it is finally Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step) who raises his arms in front of Eenkhoorn. For the third time on this Tour, the Belgian formation of Lotto-Dstny takes 2nd place (after 3 different riders).
Campi... "ssimo" of combativeness with more than 185 kilometers of breakaway.
Note the new Top10 from Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-Samsic).
Photo Credit: Photo News and @_alexbroadway_