The 19th stage of the Tour de France, this Friday July 22, takes place between Castelnau-Magnoac in the Hautes-Pyrénées and Cahors in the Lot: a course of 188.3 kilometers. The yellow jersey is still on the shoulders of Dane Jonas Vingegaard who won the 18th stage on Thursday at Hautacam in the Hautes-Pyrénées.
To start the ascent to Paris, a new departure will therefore be given from the Hautes-Pyrénées, but in the north of the department. After Trie-sur-Baïse in 2018, it is therefore the turn of Castelnau-Magnoac, which is also part of the Community of communes of Pays de Trie and Magnoac. An opportunity to celebrate cycling and rugby: Castelnau-Magnoac is the village of a certain Antoine Dupont, international scrum half of Stade Toulousain.
Castelnau-Magnoac, stopover town for the first time
The director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme details this stage: “Castelnau-Magnoac is one of the smallest towns on the Tour, it is 800 inhabitants. The Tour is made up of very large French and foreign cities: it’s Rotterdam, it’s Paris, it’s Lille, it’s medium-sized towns and it’s small villages. Sarran or Loudenvielle in recent years and therefore Castelnau-Magnoac or Lacapelle-Marival today. Castelnau-Magnoac is in the Hautes-Pyrénées department that is obviously best known for its passes.
We have been weaving with the elected officials of the Pyrenees for years, bonds of trust and friendship. And then it is also, yes indeed, the village, the town of Antoine Dupontbest player of the Six Nations Tournament in 2020, one of the strongest assets of the Fifteen of France for the World Cup which is looming in 2023.
There is a local link, and not just black Bigorre, for Castelnau-Magnoac, between cycling and rugby. Fabien Galthié came regularly to the Tour. When you are in the Pyrenees, you come across the glorious former Philippe Dintrans for example or Jean-Pierre Garuet so there is really this link, where Didier Codorniou. Well, they are there regularly, we see them with pleasure, they are people we appreciate. And leaving this small village pleased us, pleased me thinking maybe, if we dream a little for French sport, that the child of the village will offer us the World Cup in a year.“
Cahors city stage for the third time
Head north, via Gers and Tarn-et-Garonne, to reach Cahors, as France Bleu assumed on September 30th. It hasn’t been seen since 1994, with the memorable victory of Jacky Durand, with his beautiful French champion jersey. The hotels are full on the evening of July 22 in the capital of Lot.
France Christian Prudhomme looks back on the 2022 route and particularly on the passage through the Lot and Cahors. “There has been an application from the Lot for several years. Candidacy of Cahors on the one hand, candidacy of the Department of the Lot then. And then I went to Rocamadour a few years ago to attend a stage of the Route d’Occitanie, where I had seen Benoît Cosnefroy win, and I knew Rocamadour. But I was seized once more by the place. We met, we talked…
And then there was indeed this perspective of Denmark and I had said to the elected officials: listen, if we can in a certain way respond to the departure from Copenhagen by going to the Lotbecause the royal family of Denmark, the father of the crown prince was French: Prince Frederic of Denmark, his father was French, he speaks perfect French, like us, and they have a house in the Lot.
And we will pass with the stage which ends in Cahors nearby, a few kilometers from their family home. It also allows us to better understand our history and their history, it brings people together. And then, for us, if we can take inspiration from the Danes by ensuring that we are even a little more on the bike, that will be great.“
The detailed route of the 19th stage
The detailed schedules of the stage
– ASO
The route map
– ASO