Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) turned on the class today at the Giro d’Italia to take a brilliant stage win by going on the attack from the gun, and then leaving the breakaway with just one other rider 120km from the finish.
The two-time world champion then dropped his breakaway companion, Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa), on the final climb 11.5km from the chequered flag. While he always looked like he had it in the bag from that point, the original breakaway split behind him and the strongest riders tried to hunt down Alaphilippe all the way the line in Fano after 193km of racing.
Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished in 2nd and 3rd, just 31 seconds down on Alaphilippe, who faced serious criticism from his team boss, Patrick Lefevere, in recent months.
“In the small group I was in at first, cooperation was not good. So I kept speeding up. So there were two of us left. That really wasn’t the plan. For a long time we got stuck at 30 to 40 seconds,” Alaphilippe said of getting in the initial breakaway and then pressing on with Maestri.
“Our team manager (Davide) Bramati asked me to wait, but I said no. I felt good and it was better to have a 45 second lead than to have to chase. That makes this victory even more special.”
Asked at the finish if he felt reborn after winning again, following a difficult period in his career, Alaphilippe said: “I was never dead. In every career you sometimes find yourself in a downward spiral. This is the best answer I could give. I have always remained calm. I continued to believe in myself. This victory makes me want to extend my career again.”
Just months ago, Lefevere was publicly criticising Alaphilippe and, bizarrely, his partner, Marion Rousse. He also complained Alaphilippe was a very expensive rider and was not performing up to his price tag. But today, after the the French rider’s big win, Lefevere suggested he could still stay at the team at the expiry of his contract this year.
“I had appointments, but in between I tried to follow up,” Lefevere said when asked if he had watched the stage from Belgium. “At 96 kilometers from the finish I saw that Alaphilippe was leading alone with someone from a Pro Continental team. ‘What’s he doing now?’ That was my first thought. In the end he performs a great song as only he can. That’s Julian.
“It was a good decision to send him to the Giro. He is having fun on the bike again. He should have won that gravel stage already. Only he sprinted too big.”
Lefevere added he wanted to keep Alaphilippe in the team, but said that would be on a reduces salary and that if another team was willing to pay him his current salary, it would be hard for Soudal-QuickStep to keep him.
“Before the start of the season we made a proposal to break open his contract,” Lefevere explained. “We wanted to add an extra year, but at a slightly lower salary. Still a more than decent amount, certainly not an insult. His agent refused.
“Julian has apparently already told other people that he would like to stay and actually wanted to say yes to that proposal. The door is still open. It just has to be budget-feasible. If a French team comes along that is willing to continue paying him his current salary, then it will be difficult for us.”
