From the profile of stage 19 of the 2023 Tour de France, Friday's stage should have been a fairly unstressful trek through the foothills of the Jura mountains for the main overall contenders. Instead, a colossal fight for the breakaway that went on for 100 of the day's 172.8 kilometres made for a much more gruelling challenge and resulted in one of the fastest stages in history.
Once the definitive breakaway of 31 had gone, the peloton sat up and tried to recover its strength. But for the riders ahead, there was no such respite, with the pitched battle for the last transition stage of the 2023 race continuing all the way to the line, where Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) won in a photo finish.
