Julian Alaphilippe's personality, his track record and the fact that he has raced this year's Tour de France as though it were a collage of back-to-back one-day races all indicate that he is not a genuine contender for yellow in Paris.
Sooner or later the Frenchman for Deceuninck-QuickStep will come unstuck in the high mountains, but his emphatic win in the Pau time trial has, for now at least, cast him as a person of interest for several more qualified contenders. The fact that he extended his lead over Geraint Thomas on the 27.2 kilometre course in Pau will not send the defending champion and his Team Ineos squad into panic stations, but they may alter their tactics as the race ventures deeper into the Pyrenees over the coming days.
The 1:26 margin between Alaphilippe and Thomas is hard to judge at this point – which adds to the intrigue – but the British will be confident in the firepower as the second half of the race unfolds.
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After stage 13, QuickStep sit first and fourth after Enric Mas moved quietly into contention with a solid performance against the clock. On the face of it, and with Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) dropping to fifth, it looks as though QuickStep have two cards to play, but this is a three-week race and it certainly doesn’t end this Sunday.
This race has seen similar scenarios before. Remember, for instance, Bauke Mollema sitting second and Laurens ten Dam in fifth after two weeks of the 2013 Tour. They would eventually falter and drop to sixth and 13th, respectively, and the Mas-Alaphilippe pairing has the potential to do the same. One has never ridden GC before, while the other is set to leave the team and has never ridden the overall standings at the Tour. A podium in the Vuelta a Espana is highly respectable result, but the Tour is an entirely different beast.
It’s also highly unlikely that neither Alaphilippe or Mas will sacrifice himself for the other, and QuickStep’s lack depth for when the mountains come into view will surely be exposed over the next two stages.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-will-geraint-thomas-be-worried-by-alaphilippes-phenomenal-form
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