After making it into the early breakaway on the 207km-long stage 19, Matej Mohorič had a long time to think about how he'd possibly celebrate his second Tour de France stage victory, and decided upon a zip of the lips and a shush to the doubters after Bahrain-Victorious were raided by police in Pau earlier this week.
"I can't believe it, I was just trying to do my best. Our strategy today was to just be attentive of the break, especially if it's more than eight guys...we were thinking maybe it was a day for the sprint, I thought maybe Deceuninck - Quick-Step or Alpecin-Fenix would control it..." Mohorič explained after the finish, having attacked the group of 20 up the road from 25km out and solo-ing to the finish as his former collaborators squabbled behind.
Mohorič explained after his first stage win that he's tactically astute, and once again used his brain before his brawn to succeed for the second time.
"I saw I had good legs but knew it was quite hard so spoke to the guys in the breakaway, told them it was a good strategy to keep the speed as high as possible from the start of the stage. They were hesitant but agreed, and that's the best way to get the break to the finish," he explained.
"Unfortunately, the sprinters' teams let another group go and we didn't have a guy in there so I was a little disappointed but I never gave up and still hoped for the best, tried to save some energy and follow the attacks. And when Nils [Politt] went I was so on my limit, almost exploding, I thought if this is the hardest moment in the race I need to do one more sprint and if I explode and sit by the side of the road that's okay.
"I really went for it and looked back and nobody was there and I just went as hard as I possibly could and completely finished my legs towards the finish, I was dying, I was doing ridiculously low power but was trying to be as aero as possible and fortunately I managed to keep the gap to the line."
Unprompted, Mohorič said as he was coming into the finish his mind turned to the police raid the other night.
"I was thinking mostly about what happened two days ago when I felt like a criminal with all the police coming to our hotel. From one point of view it's a good thing because it means there's still control over the peloton and they are checking all the teams and of course they didn't find anything because there is nothing to hide.
"Yes, from one point of view it's a good thing but from another I'm a little disappointed with the system because it's not a nice thing when the police walk into your room and searches all your belongings even if I have nothing to hide, it feels a little bit weird, it's never happened to me before, when they go through your personal photos, the photos of your family, through your phone and your messages, it feels a little bit...at the end of the day I have nothing to hide, I don't care too much about people checking through my stuff, so it's okay, in the end, I hope."
