Jumbo Visma's victory was almost a fluke. On stage 19 of the Tour de France, the team's sole objective was to get overall leader Jonas Vingegaard safely to the finish.

The team gave Christophe Laporte the freedom to fight for the finish. His efforts up the Boulevard Gambetta earned him the first stage win of the Tour for a Frenchman.

"This wasn't planned, I followed my instincts," he said. I was only thinking about protecting Jonas today." Today all I could think about was protecting Jonas. Of course I knew the parcours well and the roads were tricky and narrow, so I went for the front. The sprinter teams were already having to do the hard work, and I couldn't control them and almost got away. But Christophe had very good legs and took advantage of his chances and instincts."

LaPorte has always had an aptitude for fast turns in uphill sprints and short but sustained efforts, and during his long tenure with Cofidis, his talents have brought him wins in races such as Etoile de Besseges and Tour de Poitou-Charentes. Since moving teams last winter, that talent has been considerably amplified, and the 29-year-old's victories have been seen in larger spectator seats.

Laporte, who scored his first WorldTour win on the first day of Paris-Nice with a one-two-three on Jumbo-Visma, scored the biggest win of his career in Cahors on Friday. As the peloton struggled to pull back the breakaway, Laporte unleashed a stunning fuchirata with 500 meters to go, reminiscent of Beppe Saronni in Goodwood. Laporte caught up to the breakaway and passed right by it, finishing one second ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Phoenix).

"The briefing was clear, the objective was to protect Jonas until 3km to go. 'And it was decided that if Jonas was safe, he could go for the sprint after the last three kilometers. With 100 km to go, Wout offered to look after Jonas until then.

Early in this Tour, L'Équipe magazine published an interview with Zeman in which he responded to the slander of Jumbo Visma's superiority by saying that the French team did not work as "professionally" as his team. This statement brought unfortunate repercussions made by the once similarly dominant team, but on Friday in Cahors, Laporte credited Jumbo Visma's methods for the progress he has made this season.

"The move to Jumbo contributed 100% to this victory. A lot of work went into this," Laporte said. In the last two months before the Tour de France, I spent six weeks in the high altitude camp, one week in the Dauphiné, and just a few days at home. A lot has changed since I joined this team: preparation, nutrition, materials. All the riders are excellent, the elite of the world, and riding with them gives me great confidence. I have to thank them. Without them we wouldn't have won here

The victory in Laporte is the second for Jumbo Visma, following his solo victory in Vingegaard at Hautacam. Van Aert is the favorite to win both Saturday's time trial and Sunday's finale on the Champs-Elysées, and could win a third of the stages in this Tour.

"I think it's possible," Laporte said. 'We already have five wins, which we are very happy with, but Wout is motivated for tomorrow and Jonas has a good time trial.' Woot already won the Champs Elysées last year, so we have a good chance. But what we have done so far is already enormous."

Jumbo Visma, of course, has won three of the four jerseys in this Tour. Race winner Vingegaard won the mountains prize, while Van Aert has a solid lead in the points classification. Even after losing Primoš Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk to injury, their dominance in this Tour is akin to Renault's in 1984, when they recorded 10 stage wins while helping Laurent Fignon win the yellow.

"Isn't winning a third of the stages in the Tour a bit much? Don't you tell the rest of the peloton to take their feet off the gas pedal from time to time? Laporte was asked this question at the post-stage press conference.

"It's a little bit too much. I give my maximum effort on every stage." It helps when you have a rider like Van Aert on your team who can win a lot of stages. We also have Jonas, the best climber in the world. None of them would ask us to cut back and I don't think they would ask other teams to do that if the situation were reversed."