Tour de France 2019: Julian Alaphilippe storms to stage three victory with brilliant late solo break
Updates from stage three of the Tour
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Your support makes all the difference.Julian Alaphilippe soloed to victory on stage three of the Tour de France to take the yellow jersey off Mike Teunissen.
The Deceuninck-Quick Step rider attacked on the final categorised climb of the 215km stage from Binche to Epernay and raced clear to take the win 26 seconds ahead of the pack, which was led over the line by Team Sunweb's Michael Matthews.
With Jumbo-Visma's Teunissen having been dropped from the main pack, that was enough for Alaphilippe to take the yellow jersey for the first time in his career. Re-live the stage:
For Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas, it was a good day in the black and red of Team Ineos, finishing second on the team time-trial and gaining significant time on rivals like Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang, who crashed on stage one, Adam Yates of Mitchelton-Scott and Romain Bardet.
But they lost 20 seconds to Jumbo-Visma’s Steven Kruijswijk, who is considered one of their main rivals for this Tour having finished fifth overall last year.
Potential stage winners
Julian Alaphillipe – A master of hilly stages like this one, Alaphilippe will be determined to pick up King of the Mountains points, but he may find that this route is not quite brutal enough to leave behind rivals with a faster finish.
Wout van Aert – Another one of Jumbo-Visma’s brilliant stable of riders who specialises in this kind of one-day challenge.
Greg van Avermaet – The Belgian is currently in the polka dots but could have sights on an upgrade to the yellow jersey here if he can escape up the road and win the stage.
Alejandro Valverde – The reigning road race world champion suffered a little in yesterday’s team time-trial but this is the kind of opportunist’s day in which he thrives.
Hello and welcome along to live coverage of stage three of the Tour de France! We'll bring you the details shortly of an early breakaway which has zipped off down the road as the race leaves Belgium and enters France.
So five riders have escaped from the peloton: Wellens, Ourselin, Offredo, Delaplace and Rossetto (the debutant who went on a solo escapade on stage one). The situation back in the main bunch is that almost no one is worried about them, except for Jumbo-Visma, who want to ensure Mike Teunissen keeps hold of the yellow jersey. The result is that Jumbo's heavy lifters like Tony Martin and George Bennett are having to work hard on the front of the peloton to keep the breakaway in check. They have developed a 4min 20sec lead already, though, a healthy advantage. 167km to go.
A reminder of what went on yesterday (with highlights) on an entertaining team time-trial, where Team Ineos set the bar high, and this brilliant Jumbo-Visma team came along and smashed it.
The breakaway's advantage over the peloton is gently being stretched further and further. This quintet now have a lead of more than five and a half minutes – still an awful long way to go, but the reluctance of anyone other than Jumbo-Visma's Tony Martin to actively reel them back in is causing the gap to grow.
A few nice images from the early action of this stage three, including the man in yellow, Mike Teunissen, who we've just seen having his saddle fixed by a handy-man leaning out of the team car being pushed on his way.
Tony Martin is single-handedly driving this peloton. He has done this many times down the years, of course, and he has a brilliant engine, but it's a big ask to bring back this breakaway, who have now got more than six minutes over the field. We'll have a look shortly at exactly who could threaten to win the stage should this break stay clear.
Some action, all of a sudden, as Quick-Step up the pace in the pack to slice off a minute of the break's six-minute lead very quickly indeed. They want to ensure the brilliant Julian Alaphilippe has a shot at this stage win come the close.
↵While we've got you, here's another prod towards this fascinating insight from various riders who have ridden the Tour de France, including the current reigning champion.
Mark Cavendish: "The Tour is not cycling. It’s a different sport"
Geraint Thomas: "As a leader it's intense"
George Bennett: "At times it’s absolutely nuts... How are we not all dead?"
The pros explain what it's really like to ride a Tour de France:
Nice to see Peter Sagan getting challenged for the green jersey, with Elia Viviani beating him to the intermediate sprint points on offer.
This doesn't look great: Jakob Fuglsang, who came into this Tour as the in-form rider, is receiving medical attention on his damaged elbow from the team car, from what looks like the remnants of his nasty stage-one crash. Let's hope he's able to get through these next few days and get back to full fitness, because he will be a fun contender later in the race.
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