Highs and lows
Julian Alaphilippe's weird and wonderful day out on stage 15 to Carcassonne
Having a rough day? A hangover getting you down, perhaps, or a hefty dose of the Sunday scaries? You can count yourself lucky for one reason: you didn’t live the same day as Julian Alaphilippe.
Alaphilippe is the current darling of French cycling by virtue of being his generation’s most talented rider. He’s a two-time world champion, winner of Milan-San Remo, three-time winner of La Flèche Wallonne, and winner of multiple grand tour stages. His valiant extended holding of the yellow jersey in 2019 catapulted that Tour into the rankings of best in recent memory.
But today was not his day.
It started and nearly ended rather early. He came down in a crash in the opening kilometres of the race and dislocated his shoulder. That would be that, Tour de France-wise, for many riders, but not Julian Alaphilippe. With some help, he popped the shoulder back in and got up and kept riding. That’s already enough drama for one day.
But, not content with this, he got himself in the breakaway. The break was both enormous and often split into many pieces on the road, and Alaphilippe spent most of his day in the fourth or fifth group. This changed as riders attacked each other or dropped away, but it was his teammate Michael Storer, the Aussie climber, who was ripping it up at the front.
Storer was pushing on with Tim Wellens - who was clearly given a day off from being Tadej Pogačar’s right hand man - Quinn Simmons (obviously) and Victor Campenaerts. This group flew away on the Pas du Sant climb, and over the top were joined by Alexey Lutsenko, Aleksandr Vlasov, Warren Barguil and Carlos Rodriguez.
This was a group of hitters, and should they all have gone to the line together it’s anyone’s guess who would have won. Tim Wellens, perhaps sensing this, attacked with over forty kilometres to go, and like Ben Healy earlier in the Tour, wasn’t seen again.
Wellens is the Belgian champion and a winner of multiple grand tour stage wins, but had never won at the Tour de France. At the age of 34 he broke his duck at the Grand Boucle, riding a canny race and exploiting the work of his breakaway companions. He didn’t make many friends but he did win the stage, which is probably all he cares about this evening.
The breakaway behind him couldn’t figure out whether they were chasing Wellens or saving themselves for the sprint to the line. As a result the huge group all came together, including the likes of Wout van Aert and Alaphilippe. Campenaerts, sensing he wouldn’t stand a chance in the sprint, nipped off the front and rolled over in second.
But what about Julian Alaphilippe? How could his day have got worse? Well, he sprinted for third place with van Aert, only he didn’t think he was sprinting for third. His radio had stopped working and he’d somehow not heard that both Wellens had already won, and not seen Campenaerts ride off the front of his group. He won the sprint and celebrated with panache, thinking he’d won the stage. Van Aert looked over at him, perplexed.
Wellens meanwhile was already cooling down and preparing for the podium.
The consolation prizes for Alaphilippe are that his crash didn’t actually end his Tour, as it so easily could have done, and that his legs are clearly improving. His career currently looks to be trending downwards, so a podium on a Tour stage is a positive in a lean couple of years. But I suppose it will still sting this evening, even more than his shoulder.
No changes on the general classification today. Tadej Pogačar still holds what looks like an unassailable lead. There was some drama with Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz being held up in the crash that did for Alaphilippe’s left shoulder, but they finished with the yellow jersey in the end.
And that’s two weeks of racing done. The first week of the Tour always feels like an age, a long block of racing from which there looks to be no end. The second week always flies by. The race winner is almost certainly decided. But we have a week left of dramas, stories, struggles and wins. Sign me up.
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Brilliant told … love the way Alaphilippe rides … the word panache was made for him!