“An embarrassing roar.” Michael Rasmussen, ex-doper and current cycling expert in Danish Ekstrabladet, calls it the incident that led to Julian Alaphilippe receiving a time penalty and losing the yellow leader’s jersey on yesterday’s Tour de France stage.
The reason? The Frenchman was given a water bottle by one of the team’s masseurs with less than 20 kilometers left to finish on the stage from Gap.
It is illegal, and the French star was punished with a 20-second time penalty. Thus, the yellow jersey ended up with Adam Yates.
– It was not the way I envisioned that I would take the jersey. “I do not even know what happened, just that Julian has been given a time penalty,” Mitchelton rider Yates said in an interview shown on TV 2 yesterday.
Kristoff’s triumph creates Danish frustration
Tactical reasons?
Former Tour de France winner and current Eurosport expert, Sir Bradley Wiggins, speculated yesterday that the blister was in no way a mistake, but a tactical choice by the Belgian big team.
– I am open-minded enough to know that it can be a tactical reason to lose the jersey in a way. Because they do not want to drive tomorrow, hunt green and there is a mountain stage and so on, Wiggins said on Eurosport’s Tour de France magazine The Breakaway.
If the British star is right, the Alaphillipe and Deceuninck-Quick Steps maneuvers will be very controversial in the cycling community.
But exactly that is nothing new for the French star.
Triangle drama
In February, the cycling hero announced that he had found happiness with the French cycling reporter Marion Rousse. The problem?
Rousse had just ended his marriage and 12-year-old relationship with another French cycling star: Tony Gallopin.
– It is serious, Alaphilippe told the French press about the situation after the announcement.
Crying for victory
Opened up
Rousse has previously stated that she does not want her life to revolve around the conditions of the two cycling lessons, but during this year’s Tour de France, the well-known TV reporter has opened up a bit about why she fell for Alaphilippe.
– He is not a stereotype like so many others who only say what is expected of them. He gives everything on the bike and has a strength, a rage and a passion that few others have. That makes us love him, she says in the French program C to you.
Alaphilippe has long been one of the cycling circus’ most popular riders. Last year, he impressed tremendously in the Tour de France when he wore the yellow leader jersey on 14 of a total of 21 stages.
On Sunday, he took over the lead in the summary and many imagined that the Frenchman could keep it until the 15th stage. But now the journey in yellow is already over for this time, at least for the time being.
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