Julian Alaphilippe on Sunday dug deep to keep the overall Tour de France lead as Simon Yates captured his second stage of this year’s race and defending champion Geraint Thomas kept his title hopes alive after a late surge.
Few believed Frenchman Alaphilippe would emerge from two daunting summit finishes in the Pyrenees with the lead, but at the Foix Prat d’Albi finish he donned the maillot jaune for an astonishing 11th time as reward for his swashbuckling performances that have lit up the Tour.
“I expected to lose a bit of time today. I’m delighted that I’m still in the yellow jersey. I gave my best to fight and retain the lead,” 27-year-old Alaphilippe said.
Photo: AFP
“We knew it would be a hard day, I paid for my efforts in the finale,” admitted Alaphilippe of the Deceuninck Quick-Step team, who turned up at the Tour after multiple wins including the Fleche Wallonne and Milan-San Remo.
Thomas struggled on the final climb into the clouds, but then closed the gap on the leader to 1 minute, 35 seconds by dropping him with a late burst after initially looking like he was going to lose precious time on the overall leader.
“Tactics-wise, we were stuck a bit between a rock and a hard place, but the positive is that the legs responded a little bit better today. It was a decent day all round to be honest,” Thomas said after the stage.
“I was suffering at times and the rest day will be welcome for everyone,” added Thomas of yesterday’s second rest day before the Tour heads north toward the Alps for a final three days of high-altitude reckoning.
Team Ineos sports director Nicolas Portal said the British team were “fine” with where they were so far.
“We’re in second place with G [Thomas],” Portal said. “We were not expecting this from Alaphilippe, he’s been imperious. It’s exciting, he’s the man of the Tour so far, but there’s a long way to go and we are hoping he blows.”
Thomas singled out Thibaut Pinot for praise after the reigning champion lost 49 seconds to the Frenchman.
Pinot, who won Saturday’s stage and then left all the chief contenders behind him after attacking halfway up the Prat d’Albi 11km ascent, now stands only 15 seconds behind the Welshman.
“We’ll have to really keep an eye on him now, we don’t want to lose too much time to him. He’s in great form, but look, he’s not the only one,” 33-year-old Thomas said.
Thomas’ joint team leader, 22-year-old Colombian Egan Bernal, is fifth, just 27 seconds behind his teammate.
“I lost time in the time rial and it changed nothing, yesterday he lost some time and it changed nothing, and today again I moved closer. If I am going full gas at some point in the race for sure I will talk with him,” said Bernal, who received high praise from Portal.
“He’s intelligent, he wants to win, but he knows his place,” Portal said.
“He waited for G, and G heard him talking to us on the radio and told him to go,” he said.
Stage winner Simon Yates also won Thursday’s stage, also on a long distance breakaway, but his twin brother Adam’s Tour de France chances look completely cooked as he lost time again.
Vuelta a Espana champion Simon Yates said he had mixed feelings about his performance.
“I came here to help my brother, Adam, and that hasn’t gone to plan, but I had a second objective and that was to win a stage,” he said after his twin had a poor time in the Pyrenees. “I’ve now won two and who knows, maybe there’s [a] third one up the road.”
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