Val Thorens (France) (AFP)
Val-Thorens served as the long cross for Julian Alaphilippe: the French, after the loss of his yellow jersey, cracked early, leaving without frustration or regret his place on the podium of the Tour de France at the the day before arrival in Paris.
At the top of the Savoyard ski resort, in the cold and the gray, the rider of the Deceuninck team had to sit on the asphalt, exhausted, exhausted by three weeks of a crazy race of which he was the greatest animator. Dark circles under the eyes, breathless, unable to drink or get up for a few minutes, the French had understood for a long time.
Twenty-four hours after losing the yellow jersey, and twenty-four hours before the final finish on the Champs-Elysées, he just lost his place on the podium of the Tour, arriving on the line more than three minutes after the winner of the day Vincenzo Nibali, and especially more than two minutes behind Geraint Thomas, Steven Kruijswijk and Emanuel Buchmann.
A relentless gap: the three cadors make him move back from second place to a frustrating fifth place overall. "Alaph '" will not be on the podium in Paris, even though he was the most prominent man of the Tour de France.
Frustrated, only his biggest fans, with infinite hopes, will be perhaps. "Why should I be frustrated? I'm just exhausted, happy, proud of what I did," he reacted, smiling quickly found. "In my career, it will have changed a lot of things, it's just sports, moments of life to enjoy."
- "Thank you Julian" -
Less than 14 kilometers from the summit of this interminable climb of 33 kilometers, the mass was said, or almost. At the instigation of the Jumbo team, that of Steven Kruijswijk, 4th in the morning, Alaphilippe's legs did not respond. The countless signs "Thank Julian" arranged on the side of the road did nothing: the famous "additional energy of the yellow jersey", which has not ceased to amaze for nearly three weeks, had beautiful and left well.
As the grimace widened on the face of Montluçonnais, the gap grew on its rivals. Forty-five seconds to nine kilometers from goal: the podium was already flying. More than a minute late one kilometer further: the German Buchmann ironed also temporarily in front.
Helped by Enric Mas, his Spanish team-mate without whom he "would have lost a quarter of an hour", he struggled to the 2,365 meters of the alpine resort, where thousands of spectators helped him push to the line.
His entourage had taken to believe an attack of the French in this climb, which, even if it was very long, had been made a little less unaffordable by the shortening of the step announced Friday evening and the suppression of the first passes of the day. "Knowing Julian, he can try, maybe even he will try, he will not let anything leave to explode on the end," his cousin and coach told the press Friday evening.
He did not have the strength or the opportunity. "I gave everything, it was difficult to do better, I was expecting to explode," he reacted with a smile, as the day before, when, immobilized in Val d'Isère by the blocked roads he had communicated with the public, with the yellow jersey still on his back, although it no longer belonged to him. "If I was second, or fiftieth, it was the same for me but I fought because I did not want to have regrets". Fourteen days in yellow are enough to have none.
© 2019 AFP