Alaphilippe wins second stage to take yellow jersey

A year after thrilling his home nation for a fortnight on last year’s Tour de France, Julian Alaphilippe produced an almost carbon-copy capture of a stage win Sunday to claim the overall leader’s yellow jersey again.

On the day’s final climb Alaphilippe launched a blistering attack to clinch bonus seconds at the summit before a white-knuckle descent to the finish line in Nice where the second stage victory also gave him bonus seconds.

Delirious with joy at his repeat performance former soldier Alaphilippe began punching towards the sky, as he turned to see just how close behind him the onrushing peloton was to overtaking his escape trio on the Promenade des Anglais finish line.

The set-up of the second stage was eerily close to how Alaphilippe stole away from the peloton last year on day three to Epernay and eventually led the Tour for 14 days before wilting on the penultimate stage to finish fifth overall.

No Frenchman has won the Tour de France since 1985.

“I really wanted to try something and I had nothing to lose,” said Deceuninck-Quick Step’s leader.

“It really hurt me, I was digging deep at the end there,” said Alaphilippe, whose tongue was hanging from his mouth as he pushed hard on the final straight.

“It’s a great pride and responsibility and I will defend this honour day by day, I won’t be giving it up tomorrow that’s for sure,” he promised.

“I’m happy now,” he concluded when stepping from the podium.

Jumbo-Visma may however be furious at the circumstances accompanying the win.

Shortly after Alaphilippe’s attack Team Ineos’ Michal Kwiatkowski somehow backed into Jumbo co-captain Tom Dumoulin and knocked him to the floor.

The Dutch outfit had been leading the head of the peloton all day, but suddenly they had to slow down and abandon their pursuit of Alaphilippe, who had the Swiss Marc Hirschi and British rider Adam Yates for company on the dash to the line.

Meanwhile, Belgian veteran Philippe Gilbert is out of the Tour de France having fractured a knee in one of the dozens of falls that marked a slapdash stage 1 run around the rain-slick roads of Nice.

His loss is a double blow to the Lotto Soudal team as another senior rider, John Degenkolb, was judged to have been too slow by the race referees and was disqualified.

Gilbert is a former world champion and has won multiple major one-day races and had the honour of wearing the Tour de France yellow jersey.

“What a disappointment for us,” said Gilbert, one of Belgium’s best loved sports stars.

The Lotto captain joined the team this season and his loss damages the team’s Tour efforts, but Gilbert reserved his anger for the treatment of his teammate Degenkolb.

“John gave everything, but got zero respect from the commissaires,” he said. “With the rain and all crashes, at least he deserved more respect.”

Several riders have complained about the race being too dangerous on Saturday, and the Astana captain Miguel Angel Lopez was criticised for racing too aggressively, gamely attacking downhill in the rain before smashing face first into a sign post.

But 2011 Tour de France champion Britain’s Bradley Wiggins told any moaners to toughen up.

“Racing is becoming more competitive and riders are willing to take more risks in order to get that win. It’s a tough sport, if you don’t like it, probably retire,” he said on British television.

Agence France-Presse