Ben Healy once again showed his fighting resolve on stage 18 of the Tour de France where new dad Victor Campenaerts celebrated an emotional first career stage win in the iconic race.
Breakaway specialist Campenaerts got his timing right in a three-up sprint against Tour debutant Matteo Vercher and Michal Kwiatkowski to win in Barcelonnette before immediately joining a tearful video call with his girlfriend Nel and their baby boy Gustaaf, a little over a month old.
Tadej Pogacar kept his lead in the yellow jersey of three minutes and 11 seconds from defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, with Remco Evenepoel just under two minutes further back in third place.
Irish cyclist Healy has been one of the most aggressive riders in this year's Tour, and the 23-year-old again demonstrated that on the 179.5km stage from Gap to Barcelonnette, billed as the last chance for the breakaway favourites.
Healy was among 38 riders that peeled off the front of the peloton on the Col du Festre, the first of five categorised climbs on the day.
In a powerful group that contained the likes of Geraint Thomas, Wout Van Aert, Jai Hindley and Richard Carapaz, the peloton allowed the gap to move into double figures, with attacks starting with 65km to go.
Healy tried his luck first, sparking a series of counters - including a couple from Thomas which ended with Kwiatkowski escaping along with Campenaerts and Vercher.
Hindley was part of a five-strong group that tried to bridge over on the long, uncategorised rise towards Barcelonnette, but although they should have had the horsepower, they lacked the cohesion and the front trio stayed away.
Healy rolled across the line 16’29" down on the stage winner, and nearly three minutes on the main group that included Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel.
The day however belonged to Campenaerts. His heavily pregnant partner Nel had joined the Belgian on a nine-week training camp at altitude in the build-up to this Tour, and gave birth to Gustaaf in Spain's Sierra Nevada just a couple of weeks before the opening stage.
Struggling to speak through his emotions, the 32-year-old Campenaerts said: "The support I have from my girlfriend is incredible.
"She's always there for me, nine weeks on an altitude camp, she was highly pregnant, she gave birth to our son at the bottom of a climb in Granada. She is the hero in this story."
Campenaerts spoke about the "very difficult time" he has been through since the end of the Classics campaign, believing he had a contract extension agreed with Lotto-Dstny before talks abruptly stopped. He is now expected to join Visma-Lease A Bike next season.
"I was ignored (by the team) for a long time, it was very difficult when I was on a long altitude camp but my girlfriend was there, she supported me every day when highly pregnant," he said.
"I was struggling to finish my training schedule but I changed my mind, I talked, I have a bright future in cycling, I became a father and everything is blue skies, only blue skies."
The Belgian had done his best to feign fatigue in the finale - admitting to "playing a little bit dirty" with his facial expressions - but he was merely holding back before bursting forward in the last few hundred metres to take a popular victory.
The main peloton rolled over the line some 13 and a half minutes later with Pogacar for once resisting the urge to attack his rivals, instead keeping his powder dry for a monster Alpine stage on Friday which will take on the Cime de la Bonette, the highest paved road in Europe at an elevation of 2,802 metres.
