Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) both gave demonstrations of their sprinting prowess today in the Critérium du Dauphiné. One got the big victory and one saved his fortunes.
In the final 200 meters to the finish-line in Le Coteau, Laporte, already a winner on stage one, took advantage of some dangerous tactics by Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) to beat the two fast men.
Bennett launched his sprint on the left side of the road but went across almost to the barriers on the right side to close the door on a hard-charging Groenewegen. His opening now shut, the Dutchman attempted to shove Matevz Govekar (Bahrain Victorious) out of the way in hopes of still taking victory.
In these same split-seconds, Laporte, seeing the crowded chaos to his right, simply went up through the left where there was plenty of daylight. Laporte scored an unexpected victory while Bennett and Groenewegen were later relegated for their over-aggressive behavior.
Perhaps the more impressive sprint win occurred a few kilometers before the finish. Julian Alaphilippe needed a bike change with 7 kilometers to go — and more than that he desperately needed to get back to the peloton to keep his ambitions intact.
You rarely see a rider jump on his bike faster than Alaphilippe. He was almost like a Hollywood cowboy taking a running leap onto his horse. The Frenchman accelerated faster than anyone we’ve seen in a long time. In mere seconds, he was up to full speed, full gas and blitzing through the team cars.
Alaphilippe said yesterday he finally feels like his old self — explosive, confident and daring. That was on display today as he sprinted like a man possessed. Soudal-Quickstep sent a rider back to pace him but Alaphilippe whipped by without a sideways glance. “I don’t need no stinking pacing!”
We don’t know what kind of maximum wattage number Alaphilippe put out compared to Laporte’s winning sprint. We do know that at the 3 kilometer mark, he was safely back in the peloton. For Julian Alaphilippe that was a sprint victory.
Leave A Comment