From crying in the hospital with a broken collarbone to winning a stage in the Tour de France: "I had to win"

“I broke my collarbone four weeks ago at the Baloise Belgium Tour and cried in the hospital because I thought I wouldn’t make it to the Tour de France,” Abrahamsen said in a moving post-race interview. “But the next day I was already on the rollers, and hope returned. From that moment on, I did everything I could to come back, and to now win a stage here… it’s unreal.”

According to his team and doctors, Abrahamsen recovered like “a 12-year-old,” and just making it to the start line in Lille was already a small miracle. But to then out-sprint Mauro Schmid (Jayco–AlUla) in a duo sprint battle after a brutal day in the break? That was something else. “Mauro was so strong today, all day long. It was incredibly hard to get past him in the sprint,” Abrahamsen said. “But I told myself: I’m in the Tour de France, and I have to win this stage.”

He edged ahead just in time, on a day where we finally saw Abrahamsen at the front all day. Last year, he was in nearly every breakaway. This time, he played it differently. “People asked me why I wasn’t in more breakaways to collect points for the mountains classification,” he said. “But the team’s goal was to win a stage, so I had to be smarter with my energy.”

“Last year, I wore the polka dots for 14 days and ended up too tired to win a stage. This time, winning a stage was my dream,” Abrahamsen smiled. Even during Wednesday’s breakaway, he conserved energy cleverly. “I knew I had a good sprint, but we’d been out all day so I had to be smart. Our lead was never that big, and we had to work hard the whole day. I just hoped I could beat him in the sprint, and we had a strong Mathieu (Van der Poel, ed.) chasing us.”

Abrahamsen delivered Uno-X Mobility its first-ever Tour stage win in only the team’s second appearance at the race. “It’s special to have been with the team since the start in 2017 and to see how we’ve grown every year. It’s filled with amazing people who helped me get to this Tour. I’m proud of this team.”