Tour de France chief Julian Alaphilippe singing a profitable tune, for now anyway

PAU, France — Julian Alaphilippe, a Tour de France challenger hiding in plain sight, skidded sideways in an exuberant, showy cease previous the end line of Friday’s time trial like a child who’d simply gained neighborhood bragging rights.

He fell into the embrace of the Deceuninck-Fast Step workforce workers, after which dismounted, sat down and began laughing. And why not? The joke was on all of the prognosticators whose solely query earlier than Stage 13 was how a lot time Alaphilippe would lose to defending champion Geraint Thomas and different riders thought-about extra sturdy over a three-week race.

As an alternative, Alaphilippe had gained the stage and gained one other 14 seconds on Thomas, the next-fastest rider over the hilly 17-mile course. His cushion of 1 minute and 26 seconds may evaporate when he and his workforce come below what are certain to be a number of assaults within the excessive mountains, beginning with Saturday’s summit end on the Col du Tourmalet.

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However Alaphilippe has already achieved what many thought unbelievable: maintain everybody guessing about his long-haul capabilities because the Tour rounds into its closing week.

“I am an actor and a spectator in what I am doing,” the 27-year-old Alaphilippe mentioned as he made his method by means of a reception line of tv and print interviews. He was making an attempt to explain the surreal feeling of carrying the jersey for all however 4 days of the race, realizing that French hopes of ending a 35-year title shutout are embedded within the cloth. However in what has change into a well-recognized chorus over the previous couple of days, he additionally stored repeating that it wasn’t sensible to “dream an excessive amount of.”

Was that warning meant for himself? Was it meant for French followers? Is it a little bit of appearing by a rider who appears to be within the type of his life? In trendy bike racing, high riders typically keep in a single lane. Alaphilippe, considered a “puncher” finest suited to single-day or, at most, week-long races, appears to be winding as much as try to go 15 rounds.

Friday’s particular person time trial occupied a curious place on this Tour de France: mid-race, quick and hilly, probably not a change of tempo in a course closely weighted towards climbers. It was essential however not as decisive because it usually has been when positioned later.

Slotted within the day after the preliminary foray into the Pyrenees — a stage that ended with a protracted descent — the prospect of the ITT prompted the general contenders to desk their ambitions. It bought underway with out world time trial champion Rohan Dennis of Australia, who give up the race with out clarification Thursday. One other stage favourite, Wout van Aert, crashed closely towards a barrier on a flip near the end and had surgical procedure to restore a lacerated proper thigh, in line with Belgian media.

After Friday’s efficiency on the Tour de France, nobody is overlooking Julian Alaphilippe anymore. Jean Catuffe/Getty Photos

Even with a much less sensible journey from Alaphilippe on Friday, the circuit that looped south from Pau after which clockwise again to the middle metropolis was too quick for Thomas and different high riders to have stripped Alaphilippe of the lead. However this was the juncture the place it was virtually taken as a right that Thomas would assert himself.

“If he carries on like this, he’ll win the Tour,” mentioned Thomas, the Welsh chief of Workforce Ineos, who is aware of Alaphilippe’s darkish horse place properly, having occupied it within the 2018 Tour when he was alleged to play second violin to Chris Froome.

A number of different contenders stored themselves inside dreaming distance of each Alaphilippe and Thomas, notably Jumbo-Visma’s Steven Kruijswijk (2:12 shy of Alaphilippe), Groupama-FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot (three:04), who had borne the brunt of the French aspirations main as much as the Tour, and EF Training First chief Rigoberto Uran (three:22) of Colombia.

Each Pinot and Uran had misplaced time final Monday when crosswinds break up the peloton and EF Training First’s preliminary surge on the entrance backfired — generally supervisor Jonathan Vaughters’ phrases, “we own-goaled ourselves.”

These groups and others are certain to journey aggressively Saturday, and once more Sunday in a stage of unrelenting climbing resulting in the second straight uphill end on the Prat d’Albis close to Foix. However Alaphilippe has an asset in his 24-year-old Spanish teammate Enric Mas, who completed second in final 12 months’s Vuelta a Espana and has quietly clambered into fourth place general. He may wind up defending Alaphilippe or changing into the workforce’s ace if the French rider folds.

Alaphilippe had plenty of prestigious puncher’s wins on his résumé, and he had a powerful time trial over an identical course in final month’s Criterium du Dauphine. Nonetheless, even in what was billed as an “open” Tour within the absence of an injured Froome, Alaphilippe was on nobody’s radar to be a part of a dialog this deep within the race.

“Tomorrow is a unique tune,” he mentioned. “Utterly completely different from what has come earlier than.”

Friday was the 100th anniversary of the primary time the long-lasting chief’s garb was introduced to a Tour chief — a bit of selling to make him stand out amid the utilitarian grey worn by a lot of the peloton. Spinning ahead a century, there isn’t a hazard that Alaphilippe will probably be neglected because the street goes upwards for actual.