There was never any danger that Julian Alaphilippe would miss the split. On all terrains and in all situations, the Frenchman has been a hyperactive presence on this Tour de France. Whenever the television cameras show the front of the race, he is invariably somewhere in the shot.
So it was on the windswept road to Albi on stage 10, where the peloton fragmented into echelons with a shade over 30 kilometres to go thanks to the forcing of Alaphilippe's Deceuninck-QuickStep team. Inevitably, the maillot jaune himself provided some of the most vigorous swings of the wrecking ball, helping to cleave a group of 30 or so riders clear of a suddenly balkanised bunch.
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Jakob Fulgsang (Astana), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) and second-placed Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) were among those left languishing behind. There would be no way back, as Deceuninck-QuickStep found a ready ally of circumstance in Ineos, who had both Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal safely aboard.
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By day's end, Alaphilippe's lead atop the general classification had stretched out to 1:12, with Thomas now in second place overall and Bernal a further 4 seconds back in third. Afterwards, he explained that his increased lead was an almost inadvertent by-product of trying to tee up Elia Viviani for stage victory, though the Italian had to settle for second behind Wout van Aert in the reduced bunch sprint.
"It wasn't planned, we were just expecting the race to be nervous and tricky," Alaphilippe said. "We planned to protect my yellow jersey and then stay focused on the sprint for Elia. We knew exactly at which kilometre we had to pay attention to possible crosswinds. All the teams had the same information, so there was a lot of pressure and stress in the peloton. It broke up and after the split, we did the maximum."
Alaphilippe expressed regret that his fellow countryman Pinot was among those to concede significant ground in the race for final overall victory. The Groupama-FDJ man lost 1:40 and drops to 11th overall, 2:33 down on Alaphilippe. They had been allies of circumstance on the road to Saint-Étienne two days ago, but coalitions at the Tour are, by their nature, always ephemeral.
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