Le Tour: Alaphilippe in the spotlight

Le Tour: Alaphilippe in the spotlight

A chaotic day in the Alps – the longest there at this edition – capped off a hard and spectacular second week of racing, and Julian Alaphilippe made sure of showing again the Soudal Quick-Step colours by attacking from kilometer zero despite the tough course ahead, which culminated with the Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc ascent (7km, 7.7%).

Alaphilippe was the first to show his intentions, and after being joined by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), he remained at the front for almost half the stage, until the slopes of the day’s second classified climb, in the meantime winning the Bluffy intermediate sprint. The 31-year-old tried to remain in the large group that soon formed once the chasers bridged across, but the effort he put in up until that point and the steep gradients spelled the end of his action. Eventually, it was one of the riders in that move, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), who took the win on stage 15, while the general classification remained unchanged.

“I tried again. It was hard, but I am content. I had good legs in the beginning, so I went on the attack, but as the stage progressed, I had to let go of the break, despite giving my maximum. I have no regrets, because I did my best and had a lot of joy on the roads today. Things aren’t perfect when compared to the previous years, as I have high and lows, but I feel that I’m constantly improving compared to the opening weekend and I hope this will pay off at some point”, explained Soudal Quick-Step’s rider after his fourth day in the break at this edition.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Wout Poels
Bahrain - Victorious
4:40:45
2 Wout van Aert
Jumbo-Visma
2:08
3 Mathieu Burgaudeau
TotalEnergies
3:00
4 Lawson Craddock
Team Jayco AlUla
3:10
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Bahrain - Victorious
3:14
6 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
3:14
7 Guillaume Martin
Cofidis
3:32
8 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
3:43
9 Simon Guglielmi
Team Arkéa Samsic
3:59
10 Warren Barguil
Team Arkéa Samsic
4:20
48 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal - Quick Step
19:40
88 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
30:49
102 Tim Declercq
Soudal - Quick Step
32:01
104 Yves Lampaert
Soudal - Quick Step
32:01
115 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal - Quick Step
32:50
116 Dries Devenyns
Soudal - Quick Step
32:50
156 Michael Mørkøv Christensen
Soudal - Quick Step
37:22
1 Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen
Jumbo-Visma
62:34:17
2 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
0:10
3 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
5:21
4 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
5:40
5 Jai Hindley
BORA - hansgrohe
6:38
6 Sepp Kuss
Jumbo-Visma
9:16
7 Pello Bilbao López de Armentia
Bahrain - Victorious
10:11
8 Simon Yates
Team Jayco AlUla
10:48
9 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
14:07
10 Guillaume Martin
Cofidis
14:18
36 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal - Quick Step
1:45:20
95 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal - Quick Step
3:23:25
111 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
3:37:50
112 Yves Lampaert
Soudal - Quick Step
3:40:37
132 Tim Declercq
Soudal - Quick Step
4:02:01
138 Dries Devenyns
Soudal - Quick Step
4:10:24
157 Michael Mørkøv Christensen
Soudal - Quick Step
4:45:31
1 Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin-Deceuninck
323 pt
2 Mads Pedersen
Lidl - Trek
179 pt
3 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
178 pt
4 Wout van Aert
Jumbo-Visma
139 pt
5 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
129 pt
6 Jordi Meeus
BORA - hansgrohe
96 pt
7 Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jayco AlUla
92 pt
8 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Circus - Wanty
90 pt
9 Michael Woods
Israel - Premier Tech
88 pt
10 Victor Lafay
Cofidis
80 pt
43 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal - Quick Step
35 pt
51 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal - Quick Step
31 pt
56 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
28 pt
77 Tim Declercq
Soudal - Quick Step
15 pt
1 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
58 pt
2 Neilson Powless
EF Education-EasyPost
58 pt
3 Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen
Jumbo-Visma
54 pt
4 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
48 pt
5 Wout van Aert
Jumbo-Visma
47 pt
6 Felix Gall
AG2R Citroën Team
32 pt
7 Jai Hindley
BORA - hansgrohe
31 pt
8 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
30 pt
9 Michał Kwiatkowski
INEOS Grenadiers
30 pt
10 Michael Woods
Israel - Premier Tech
28 pt
12 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal - Quick Step
17 pt
56 Tim Declercq
Soudal - Quick Step
1 pt
57 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal - Quick Step
1 pt
58 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
1 pt
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
62:34:27
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
5:11
3 Felix Gall
AG2R Citroën Team
14:29
4 Thomas Pidcock
INEOS Grenadiers
16:43
5 Mathieu Burgaudeau
TotalEnergies
1:21:08
6 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
1:22:16
7 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
2:04:01
8 Matteo Jorgenson
Movistar Team
2:14:50
9 Maxim Van Gils
Lotto Dstny
2:22:56
10 Clément Champoussin
Team Arkéa Samsic
2:27:38
1 Jumbo-Visma 188:22:03
2 INEOS Grenadiers 3:22
3 UAE Team Emirates 7:39
4 Bahrain - Victorious 10:22
5 Groupama - FDJ 42:41
6 BORA - hansgrohe 1:15:49
7 AG2R Citroën Team 1:26:42
8 Movistar Team 2:34:12
9 Team Jayco AlUla 2:39:51
10 Cofidis 3:16:27

Related items

Tour de France: Alaphilippe tries again

Tour de France: Alaphilippe tries again

13/07/2023 - Race report
Link
Tour de France - stage 15

Tour de France - stage 15

16/07/2023 - Road
Link