Matej Mohoric took his second victory of this year’s Tour de France on stage 19 as Mark Cavendish was made to wait for a record-breaking 35th win at the race.
Mohoric, 26, who already soloed to victory on stage seven, was brilliantly opportunistic again as he made a superb move away from a group of 20 riders with 25 kilometres remaining.
The Slovenian proved too strong for the chasers as Bahrain Victorious clinched their third win of the Tour.
The victory came just 48 hours after the team bus and hotel were raided by police.
And Mohoric appeared to silence critics during his celebration as he zipped his mouth shut and thrust his hands in the air.
Meanwhile, having chased down moves for the first 100 kilometres of the stage, the sprint teams eventually let the break go and trundled across the line more than 20 minutes after Mohoric.
Cavendish, who was greeted by all-time great Eddy Merckx at the start of the stage – the only other rider in Tour history with 34 wins to his name – will now look to break the record on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sunday.
The 36-year-old has won four times previously in the French capital and was unbeaten on the prestigious stretch of road between 2009 and 2012.