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Julian Alaphilippe won Sunday the second stage of the Tour de France, in Nice, and took the yellow jersey from the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff, winner of the first stage, the day before.
The French Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) won, Sunday August 30 in Nice, the second stage of the Tour de France, contested on 186 kilometers of dry roads in the Nice hinterland. The tricolor cyclist also took the yellow jersey from the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff.
Great host of the 2019 edition, Julian Alaphilippe started 13 km from the finish, in the Col des Quatre Chemins, and finished in the sprint ahead of the Swiss Marc Hirschi and the Briton Adam Yates.
Fifth stage victory in the Tour
In tears after arriving on the Promenade des Anglais, Alaphilippe set the end of this first mid-mountain stage on fire.
The leader of the Deceuninck team narrowly won, by half a wheel, over the Swiss Marc Hirschi in a three-man sprint that concluded this 186-kilometer stage, under the sun found in the sky of the Côte Azure after the bad weather of the day before.
At 28, Alaphilippe claimed his fifth stage victory in the Tour. Deprived of success since the Pau time trial in the 2019 Tour, he opened his 2020 counter.
The French attacked on the strong percentages of the rise of Eze, 13 kilometers from the line. Joined very quickly by Hirschi, a young Swiss (22 years old) promising for his debut in the Grande Boucle, then by the Briton Adam Yates, Alaphilippe fell to the top of the Col des Quatre Chemins with about twenty seconds in advance.
The group of favorites got closer in the last few hundred meters when the leading trio observed each other. Alaphilippe, feverish, tense, managed to resist the return of Hirschi and achieved his first goal of the Tour.
“Today is very important, he announced. It’s a very good stage, with a good final. I am keen to do well, I hope that the legs will be there.”
3,685 meters of elevation gain
The stage, which had started badly for David Gaudu, left behind in the first kilometers the day after his fall, was opened by a breakaway of seven riders (Sagan, Pöstlberger, Cosnefroy, Pérez, Asgreen, Skujins, Gogl).
Benoît Cosnefroy took the lead at the top of the first notable pass of this Tour, that of Colmiane, imitated by another Frenchman, Anthony Pérez, at the top of the Col de Turini, the Mecca of the Monte-Carlo Rally. But the gap did not exceed three minutes on a peloton which controlled the situation.
The wearer of the yellow jersey, Alexander Kristoff, was left behind in the Turini, classified in the first category. Too hard (14.9 kilometers at 7.4%) for the Norwegian sprinter and his 78 kilos, who let the peloton start on the dry roads of the Nice hinterland in this stage with 3,685 meters of elevation gain .
The junction was made at the foot of the Èze pass, 40 kilometers from the finish, before the Belgian Dries Devenyns, in the service of Julian Alaphilippe, dictates the pace during the climb then leaves the responsibilities to the Jumbo team. .
Alaphilippe then relied on Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels at the foot of the second climb, as a prelude to his decisive attack.
The Frenchman will therefore be in yellow for the third stage which will lead the riders on Monday from Nice to Sisteron (198 kilometers).
With AFP
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