Alaphilippe wins stage — ‘a dream for me’
LE GRAND-BORNAND, France — Julian Alaphilippe claimed the first mountain leg of this Tour de France on Tuesday, and Greg Van Avermaet kept the overall lead for a seventh consecutive day.
Alaphilippe, a French rider for Quick-Step, won the 98.5mile ride from Lake Annecy that included climbs over four major Alpine passes before a descent to Le GrandBornand in around 4½ hours.
Van Avermaet, an Olympic champion, got into an early breakaway and increased his lead over Geraint Thomas, a Sky teammate of defending champion Chris Froome, to 2 minutes, 22 seconds.
Alejandro Valverde of Movistar moved into third overall at 3:10 off the pace. Jakob Fuglsang of Astana was next at 3:12.
Froome is 3:21 behind Van Avermaet after recovering from a punctured tire atop the second of the stage’s ascents, finishing with Thomas and most of the top contenders.
Alaphilippe got his first Tour win after he attacked on the third ascent up the category-one Col de Romme and increased his lead over the Col de la Colombiere before the final downhill finish.
He crossed the line more than a minute ahead of Jon Izaguirre in second. That gave him extra time to soak up the applause from the French fans for the country’s first winner in this race, two days after France won the World Cup.
“I have no words. To get a victory at the Tour de France was a dream for me,” Alaphillipe said. “Everything went through my head, all the work, my family.”
It was the third stage win for the Quick-Step team at this Tour.
Froome punctured a tire on a gravel path atop the second climb up the beyond-category Montee du Plateau des Glieres, the first use of a dirt road by the Tour since 1987.
Despite having Sky teammates at the front of the peloton, once Froome got a wheel from teammate Jonathan Castroviejo, he was left all alone for several minutes until Wout Poels eventually dropped back to help him get going.
Van Avermaet got in an early breakaway that managed to open a seven-minute gap over the pack midway through the stage.
That proved enough for the Belgian rider to extend his lead despite struggling near the end of the stage when he was dropped by other frontrunners.
Van Avermaet’s BMC team lost leader Richie Porte when he broke his collarbone Sunday.
Earlier, Dutch rider Annemiek Van Vleuten won the women’s La Course for a second year in a row. The single-day race was run on a route that included most of the men’s 10th stage.