Nicolas Prodhomme from Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale won the nineteenth stage of the Giro d'Italia. The visibly moved Frenchman said he wanted to return home with a beautiful memory, because the pink race is important to him. After winning the last stage at Tour of the Alps, Prudhomme has now realized his dream of winning a stage in the Giro. The Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale rider waited for the right moment, and today, his opportunity finally arrived.

"I'm really happy; it's a very important day for me. On the Col du Joux, I saw that the gap wasn't so large from the group of favorites and I thought they would catch up, but at the same time, I told myself that I had already finished in the top 5 twice, so it was time to take a risk. I said: I'll try, and I went."

Prudhomme won the most important race of his life and arrived solo at the Champoluc finish line with a 58" advantage over Del Toro and Carapaz, who arrived together. Further back, Caruso was at 1'22" leading the other classification riders.

"Del Toro descends really fast, he knows how to take risks. In the last kilometer, when I looked back, I saw the car behind me. Usually the car stays behind the leading rider when they have a minute's advantage, so it was only at that moment that I understood I would win."

For the Frenchman, going alone was not easy, as the temperatures during the race were high. "I suffered from the heat, but being in a breakaway makes you suffer a bit less, because you have more contact with your team car and they had lots of ice and water, so I hydrated well. The heat was there, but I suffered less than in the group, and my legs were going perfectly. I can only say that it was truly beautiful today."