Julian Alaphilippe is second on the general classification.
What should have been a quiet and uneventful day of the week as the peloton travelled to the small town of Le Coteau ended up being a stressful stage right until the very end, when the sprinters fought for glory. The first nervous moment came around 50 kilometers from home, when a major crash took place in the second half of the peloton, bringing several riders down.
Among those involved were also three Soudal Quick-Step riders, including Monday’s winner Julian Alaphilippe, but fortunately they all escaped unscathed from this incident. With 24 kilometers to go, another pile-up happened, this time Mauri Vansevenant hitting the ground. Like his teammate, he too got quickly back and returned in the bunch, who took it quite easy on Côte de Pinay, before increasing the speed in the final ten kilometers.
As more and more riders tried to make their way to the front, two more crashes took place, the last of these fragmenting the bunch, among those who found themselves on the wrong side of the split being Ethan Vernon. As a result, the young Brit couldn’t feature in the finale, which saw Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) edge out the other fast men, and concluded in 15th place.
Having captured two bonus seconds at the day’s only intermediate sprint, Julian cemented his place on the podium and remained the team’s best placed rider ahead of the individual time trial in Course-Belmont-de-la-Loire.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
Julian Alaphilippe 
