‘I’m thinking about my wife and son’: Miguel Angel Lopez emotional after stage victory at his first Tour de France
The Colombian talent took the biggest win of his career so far
Miguel Ángel López was emotional at the finish of stage 17 of the Tour de France, after a huge stage victory on the Col de la Loze,
The Astana rider was proved himself strongest against his general classification rivals after a brutal day of climbing, taking stage honours on his Tour debut.
Lopez rode away from Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar in the final 3km on the steepest gradients of the new climb, a move that also catapulted the Colombian into third place overall.
Speaking after the stage, Lopez said: “I’m really happy. Theres a lot of emotion involved. “We’ve been working really hard to achieve this and it wasn’t easy to get there so I feel a lot of emotion at the moment.
“We’ve been working incredibly hard to try and get to this point. I’ve been working really hard throughout lockdown and I’ve been doing a lot of home parenting as well, so to get to this point is amazing.”
With two huge climbs to tackle on stage 17, including the Col de la Madeleine and the Loze, it was a day for the GC contenders to fight for the stage and try to find cracks in the armour of race leader Roglič.
Holding strong against the pace set by Bahrain-McLaren on the final climb, Lopez found his opportunity when Roglič and Pogačar began to mark each other in final few kilometres.
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Jumping away as the summit approached, 2300 metres up, Lopez rode to the line 15 seconds ahead of Roglič.
>>> Tour de France standings: The latest results at the 2020 race
Lopez said: “I’m thinking about my wife and my son. It’s really hard to be a long way away from them but it’s my job but I think about my family all the time.
“I would need at least a minute over Pogačar and Roglič in the time trial. For now, it would be better to enjoy what we already have."
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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