As the Tour de France approaches, it's sometimes too quickly taken for granted that the biggest GC days will also contain the race’s emotional high points. But if moments like Mark Cavendish’s 35th victory or Biniam Girmay’s breakthrough bunch sprint triumph this year have already amply disproved that theory, then a win like Victor Campenaerts on stage 18 showed that even a transition stage has just as much hidden potency to deeply move fans, riders and media alike.
You'd have needed a heart of stone, in fact, not to be affected by the TV images of Campenaerts calling his girlfriend and newborn son on the phone and on the verge of tears as he did so, just moments after his stage win in the streets of Barcelonnette.
