Published on : 26/06/2021 – 17:30Modified : 26/06/2021 – 17:50
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck) won the first stage and donned the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, this Saturday, on the heights of Landerneau.
Landerneau (France) (AFP)
The Frenchman from the Deceuninck team beat the other punchers and the Tour favorites by 8 seconds at the top of Fosse-aux-Loups. Australian Michael Matthews took second place ahead of Slovenian Primoz Roglic (2nd in the 2020 Tour) who pocketed 4 bonus seconds.
Julian Alaphilippe, 29, removed his sixth stage of the Tour de France since 2018. “ I was keen to succeed, but from there to do it! Exclaimed the French, who went on the attack 2300 meters from the line. ” In the end, I was caught in a fall, but we were able to get in without getting upset. It was necessary to finish the work in the last ascent. I gave the maximum without asking myself a question “, he added.
Two big falls occurred in this opening stage. The second, less than 8 kilometers from the finish, concerned in particular the Briton Chris Froome, quadruple winner of the event, who was however able to get back on the bike after several minutes.
Maxi-fall
For its first of four days of racing in Brittany, the Tour found its public, who came in large numbers to the roadsides. And also, on the other hand, an additional share of risk since a spectator holding a sign encroaching on the road caused a maxi-fall 45 kilometers from the finish.
The German Tony Martin, the first to fall, brought in his fall other runners, like dominoes, on the narrow roadway and the side aisles. Among others, several of his teammates from the Jumbo formation, including the Slovenian Primoz Roglic (2nd in the 2020 Tour) is the leader. Belgian champion Wout van Aert was then able to enter the peloton, as were Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli and Colombian climber Miguel Angel Lopez.
In this stage of nearly 200 kilometers, the peloton left less than four minutes to break away (Bonnamour, Pérez, Rodriguez, Schelling, Swift, D. van Poppel). Ide Schelling, a 23-year-old Dutch Tour neophyte, then broke free in one of the six climbs of the day, 83 kilometers from the finish. He embarked on a solitary raid that ended at the entrance of the last 30 kilometers and won the polka-dot jersey for best climber.
On Sunday, the second stage also ends uphill, in Mûr-de-Bretagne, after 183.5 kilometers.
(With AFP)
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