PA Media/dpa
London
New dad Victor Campenaerts celebrated an emotional first career Tour de France win on stage 18 as Tadej Pogacar kept his lead in the yellow jersey.
Breakaway specialist Campenaerts got his timing right in a three-up sprint against Tour debutant Matteo Vercher and Michal Kwiatkowski to win in Barcelonnette before immediately joining a tearful video call with his girlfriend Nel and their baby boy Gustaaf, a little over a month old.
A heavily-pregnant Nel had joined Campenaerts on a nine-week training camp at altitude in the build-up to this Tour, and gave birth to Gustaaf in Spain’s Sierra Nevada just a couple of weeks before the opening stage.
Struggling to speak through his emotions, the 32-year-old Campenaerts said: "The support I have from my girlfriend is incredible.
"She’s always there for me, nine weeks on an altitude camp, she was highly pregnant, she gave birth to our son at the bottom of a climb in Granada. She is the hero in this story.” Campenaerts spoke about the "very difficult time” he has been through since the end of the Classics campaign, believing he had a contract extension agreed with Lotto-Dstny before talks abruptly stopped. He is now expected to join Visma-Lease A Bike next season.
"I was ignored (by the team) for a long time, it was very difficult when I was on a long altitude camp but my girlfriend was there, she supported me every day when highly pregnant,” he said.
"I was struggling to finish my training schedule but I changed my mind, I talked, I have a bright future in cycling, I became a father and everything is blue skies, only blue skies.”
The Belgian had done his best to feign fatigue in the finale - admitting to "playing a little bit dirty” with his facial expressions - but he was merely holding back before bursting forward in the last few hundred metres to take a popular victory.