Alaphilippe 'starting to pay' for Tour de France efforts
Finally, a crack in the armour. After 14 extraordinary days, Julian Alaphilippe showed he was human on the Prat d'Albis on Sunday.
For the first time in this sensational Tour de France, we saw Alaphilppe dropping from the back of a group rather than accelerating off the front of it. He was unable to live with the relentless forcing of pace from his compatriot Thibaut Pinot and even conceded ground to second-placed Geraint Thomas.
This, however, was no crashing back down to earth. Alaphilippe placed 11th on the stage with a cast of big-name GC riders in his wake and the yellow jersey still on his shoulders. The damage to Pinot was 1:16 but that to Thomas was a modest 27 seconds.
The day after an hors-categorie summit finish on the Tourmalet, it was a performance that was arguably above and beyond what he and we might have predicted a fortnight ago. But then again, our expectations of Alaphilippe have been completely rewritten at this Tour.
Nevertheless, it's hard to escape the feeling that, 24 hours after his watershed second-place on the Tourmalet, Sunday's stage signified a new turning point. His extraordinary efforts over the past two weeks are beginning to add up and there are still three gruelling days in the Alps between here and Paris.
"I expected it to be difficult. I'm not disappointed, I'm just completely spent. It's not a surprise for me to crack against the best climbers, especially after yesterday's stage, where I really went deep into my reserves," Alaphilippe said at the top of the mountain.
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