He had to tremble for a few seconds at the finish, then the recordings of a gripping sprint between the Dane Kasper Asgreen and the Slovenian Matej Mohoric were evaluated – and Mohoric was chosen as the winner. After his victory, the 28-year-old chose memorable words.
When asked in the winner’s interview what success means to him, Mohoric was clearly fighting back tears. “It means a lot to me because it’s hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist. You suffer in preparation, sacrifice your life, your family and do everything to be ready here,” said Mohoric.
Even if you’re completely broken, you have to give everything to cross the finish line as quickly as possible. Then you go to bed and have to repeat the effort the next day. Sometimes he even has the feeling that he’s not allowed to be part of the tour entourage at all, because “everyone is so incredibly strong and sometimes it’s difficult to stay on the rear wheel at all”.
Kasper Asgreen made an incredibly strong impression, he had to give everything to follow the Dane – also for his teammate Gino Mäder, who died in an accident during the Tour de Suisse.
“Then you win and it feels like you cheated him because you overtook him in the last 15 centimeters,” Mohoric remains emotional.
He knows he’s capable of winning a Tour stage because he’s done it before, but every rider in the field deserves victory, Mohoric continues. “But that’s not possible and that’s cruel.”
Impressive words from a cyclist who really isn’t one of the less successful of his trade. Mohoric has already been junior and U23 world champion, winning stages in each of the three major tours – in 2021 he even won two sections of the tour.