Trial and success
Alaphilippe wins stage as Tour de France lead grows
PAU, France — A question that first seemed amusing at best is growing in credibility with each additional ride that takes Julian Alaphilippe toward Paris: Could the 27-yearold Frenchman carry the yellow jersey glued ever more firmly to his shoulders all the way to the Tour de France finish on the Champs-Élysées?
With the race’s toughest climbs looming today, Alaphilippe pretended not when asked Friday — but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to believe him. Having had no excuse to uncork champagne since it most recently had a Tour winner in 1985, France will soon need to start thinking about icing the bubbly if Alaphilippe keeps surprising everyone, even himself.
Inspired by his “maillot jaune” (yellow jersey), Alaphilippe delivered the biggest shock so far by holding off 2018 champion Geraint Thomas on Friday to win the only individual time-trial stage in this year’s race, extending his overall lead and ratcheting up French hopes for its first homegrown champion since Bernard Hinault won his fifth title 34 years ago.
Roared on by crowds thunderously hammering on roadside barriers — and extra motivated on the 100th birthday of the iconic yellow jersey — Alaphilippe delivered a barnstorming performance on the tricky, hilly, turn-filled time-trial loop south of Pau with spectacular views of the Pyrenees mountain range.
Having previously predicted he’d lose time to Thomas, an expert in the race against the clock, Alaphilippe stunned even himself by emphatically relegating the Welshman into second place for the stage, 14 seconds slower — a surprising margin of victory in a discipline in which riders train in wind tunnels and ride aerodynamic bikes in skinsuits to shave off time.
“It’s incredible,” Alaphilippe said, adding that his performance reduced members of his Deceuninck–Quick-Step team to tears. “I was transported by the maillot jaune.”
His second stage victory of this Tour — he also was victorious in Stage 3 — came 100 years to the day since the Tour first awarded a yellow jersey, to Frenchman Eugene Christophe on July 19, 1919. Stage 3 was also where Alaphilippe first took the race lead. He lost it during Stage 6, got it back during Stage 8 and hasn’t let anyone else near it since.
However, between Alaphilippe and the July 28 conclusion in Paris are two huge obstacles: the Pyreenees and the Alps, with a total of seven climbs to above 6,500 feet still to come in the highest Tour in the race’s 116-year history. The first of those monsters is the Tourmalet today. Alaphilippe’s sizeable lead of 1 minute, 26 seconds over Thomas could melt like the Pyrenees’ last snows in the July heat if he cracks on the long uphill finish or next week in the Alps.
“There’s a long way to go and a lot of hard stages to come now,” Thomas said.
Still, Thomas was among those stunned by Alaphilippe’s sustained power on the 17-mile time-trial route, where he was quickest through all the checkpoints and then rode explosively up the final climb to grow his winning margin.
“I didn’t really expect that,” Thomas said. “He’s obviously going incredibly well, so he’s certainly the favorite and the one to watch.”
Mindful of how quickly the Tour’s mountains can destroy podium hopes, Alaphilppe furiously sought to temper expectations, repeating that he is thinking only “day by day.”
“One mustn’t dream,” he said.
Given the doping-stained history of cycling and the Tour, Alaphilippe also immediately faced a question in his winner’s news conference about the believability of his performance, which he batted away, seemingly unruffled.
“If it creates suspicions, that’s the way it is,” he said. “I’m just riding my bike in the way I like.”
Behind Thomas and Alaphilippe, there was significant movement in the overall standings among other riders also fighting to get on the podium. Steven Kruijswijk, who finished fifth in last year’s Tour, vaulted to third overall — but his deficit to Alaphilippe grew to 2:12 after being just 1:27 entering Friday. Egan Bernal, a co-leader with Thomas at Team Ineos, slipped from third to fifth overall, now 2:52 behind Alaphilippe.
Wout van Aert, a Tour rookie who won Stage 10, plowed into a roadside barrier and crashed in a right-hand curve close to the finish. He’d been one of the quickest riders on the course before hitting the deck. Medics treated him at the side of the road and then transported him away by ambulance. His team, Jumbo-Visma, said van Aert was conscious but out of the race with a flesh wound on his right upper leg.