Alaphilippe takes advantage of downhill skills and crucial crashes to earn victory in wild 16th stage
0 Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe celebrates at the finishing line Tear gas in riders’ eyes. A farmers’ protest blocking the road. Two key crashes on dangerous descents.
The only thing lacking from the wild 16th stage of the Tour de France yesterday was a shake-up in the overall standings.
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe took advantage of his downhill skills to win the first of three mountainous legs in the Pyrenees, which was briefly interrupted when police used tear gas to disperse a farmers’ protest that had blocked the road with bales of hay.
The overall standings, were unchanged. Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey, second-placed Chris Froome and thirdplaced Tom Dumoulin all crossed together nearly nine minutes behind.
The farmers’ protest occurred 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) into the 218km leg from Carcassonne to Bagneres-deluchon. Thomas, Froome, world champion Peter Sagan and other riders were treated with eye drops due to the tear gas amid a 15-minute delay.
After all the drama, though, Thomas remained 1 minute, 39 seconds ahead of four-time champion Froome, with Dumoulin 1:50 back. Alaphilippe took the lead when Adam Yates, pictured, crashed on a technical descent in the finale.
“I knew the finale was tricky,” Alaphilippe said. “I was sad for [Yates] but it could have happened to me, too, because I took a lot of risks. I went all out for 220km today. I’m exhausted.”
Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert was leading when he crashed earlier in the stage while descending from the Col de Portet-d’aspet, hitting a wall and flipping off his bike spectacularly but avoiding major injury. It was the same descent where Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died during the 1995 Tour.
“I thought I was broken everywhere,” said Gilbert, a teammate of Alaphilippe’s on the Quick-step team. “But I ended up more or less OK.”
Alaphilippe also won the tenth stage and is wearing the polka-dot jersey of the moun-
tains classification leader. Yates led Alaphilippe by 20 seconds at the top of the Col du Portillon climb 10km from the finish but lost control with 6km to go, falling to the pavement on a left turn and sliding across the road.
“You never know what’s coming up on some of these corners,” Yates said. “There was a bit of downforce or something and I came down, that’s all there is to it. Morale’s pretty damaged right now. When you come so close to winning a stage of the Tour, it’s pretty devastating,” added Yates.
Alaphilippe, who was gaining ground on Yates, quickly passed the British rider and had time to celebrate before the finish, smiling at the crowd and shaking his head in disbelief.
Spanish rider Gorka Izaguirre was second, 15 seconds behind, and Yates crossed third with the same time.
The race remains in the Pyrenees today for what could be the most challenging stage of the Tour, a 65km leg from Bagneres-de Luchon to Saint-lary-soulan Col du Portet that features three gruelling climbs.