Matej Mohoric takes solo victory as Mark Cavendish is forced to wait for record-breaking win

The Slovenian picked up his second win of the Tour with a brilliant solo effort

Matej Mohoric took his second victory of this year’s Tour de France on stage 19 as Mark Cavendish was made to wait for a record-breaking 35th win at the race.

Mohoric, 26, who already soloed to victory on stage seven, was brilliantly opportunistic again as he made a superb move away from a group of 20 riders with 25 kilometres remaining.

The Slovenian proved too strong for the chasers as Bahrain Victorious clinched their third win of the Tour.

The victory came just 48 hours after the team bus and hotel were raided by police.

And Mohoric appeared to silence critics during his celebration as he zipped his mouth shut and thrust his hands in the air.

Meanwhile, having chased down moves for the first 100 kilometres of the Mourenx to Libourne stage, the sprint teams eventually let the break go and trundled across the line more than 20 minutes after Mohoric.

Cavendish, who was greeted by all-time great Eddy Merckx at the start of the stage – the only other rider in Tour history with 34 wins to his name – will now look to break the record on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sunday.

The 36-year-old has won four times previously in the French capital and was unbeaten on the prestigious stretch of road between 2009 and 2012.

Tadej Pogacar remains the overall leader heading into the final two days, with a lead of just under six minutes from Jonas Vingegaard.

General Classifications after stage 19:

1 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 79hrs 40mins 9secs

2 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma at 5m 45s

3 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers at 5m 51s

4 Ben O’Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroen Team at 8m 18s

5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe at 8m 50s

6 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team at 10m 11s

7 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech at 11m 22s

8 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis at 12m 46s

9 Pello Bilbao Lopez De Armentia (Spa) Bahrain Victorious at 13m 48s

10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo at 16m 25s

11 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 18m 42s

12 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep at 23m 36s

13 Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Team BikeExchange at 32m 7s

14 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Materiaux at 35m 55s

15 Aurelien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R Citroen Team at 37m 21s

16 Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain Victorious at 47m

17 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain Victorious at 49m 33s

18 Ruben Guerreiro (Por) EF Education-Nippo at 52m 26s

19 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma at 58m 9s

20 Sergio Henao Montoya (Col) Qhubeka-NextHash at 58m 26s

Selected Others

40 Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-up Nation at 2hr 4m 33s

42 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers at 2hr 7m 40s

44 Mark Donovan (Gbr) Team DSM at 2hr 11m 10s

62 Tao Geoghegan Hart (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers at 2hr 33m

91 Connor Swift (Gbr) Team Arkea-Samsic at 3hr 12m 2s

100 Fred Wright (Gbr) Bahrain Victorious at 3hr 23m 20s

134 Chris Froome (Gbr) Israel Start-up Nation at 4hr 7m 30s

140 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Deceuninck-QuickStep at 4hr 31m 3s

Additional reporting by PA