Video painful! Julian Alaphilippe thinks he wins Tour-stage, but comes third: “He’s not the smartest”

Alaphilippe fell early in the fifteenth stage. Due to the fall, the Frenchman had to do most of the ride without communication. Alaphilippe did not get any information from his tracking car. When he beat Van Aert in the sprint for third place, Alaphilippe thought he had won …

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Van Aert’s face spoke volumes when he crossed the line with an enthusiastic cheering Alaphilippe. Afterwards, the Belgian confirmed that Tudor’s French rider indeed thought he had been won. “I told him he was third,” Van Aert, who gave Alaphilippe another wipe. “He had done an extra lead. He is not the smartest.”

It is not the first time that Alaphilippe went to fog on a finish line. Many a cycling enthusiast will not soon forget the final of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2020. The Frenchman was in a leading position, raised his hands (too early) and saw Roglic patters in the last meters of Primoz. A painful, classic blunder from Alaphilippe at the time.

What does Van Aert say about his sprint?

Van Aert was fourth on the birthday of his son Jerome. Yet he knew a difficult day: “It took a lot of powers to get into the flight, so I was pretty tired after the first two hours.” Van Aert had a teammate in the leading group with Victor Campenaerts and was able to distribute the burden of the course. “I told Victor that he had to respond to the climbs, because I didn’t feel great there.”

“There was little conviction on my sprint,” Van Aert still knew.