A striking scene at the finish in Carcassonne: breakaway rider Julian Alaphilippe thought he had won the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France, but it was actually the sprint for third place that he 'won'. Cheering, Alaphilippe crossed the line, but he soon realized he had not won. Afterwards, his team Tudor provided an explanation for that unusual celebration.
"Julian knew that Michael Storer was up front with him, but he didn't know the situation. Early in the race, he crashed after 20 kilometers and had no radio since then," explained Tudor team director Bart Leysen on Sporza. "We could supply him through contact with the race commissaires, but he received little other information. His radio was broken, so communication was impossible."
Leysen also found Alaphilippe's reaction strange. "Because there were still three or four groups behind Tim Wellens, also including Storer. That's why the team car was never close by. That was the issue. There was no chance to switch radios either," said the Belgian directeur sportif. "This is certainly frustrating, but you can’t undo it. In the team briefing, we said we were happy with third place, but Julian won’t feel that way," He’s already won a lot..."
"When we get to the hotel later, that feeling will probably fade. Julian is ambitious and currently very strong, getting better by the day, and his morale is never a problem," said Leysen, who also saw Tudor actively involved. "Little went wrong, Michael was in the breakaway. He had pushed ahead with Julian to contest this finale."
"After my early crash (where I dislocated my shoulder, ed.), I rode a time trial to get back to the peloton and then found myself in a breakaway group with Michael Storer, which was the team’s plan. Unfortunately, my radio stopped working after the crash, so I started the final sprint aiming for the best result possible, thinking it was for the win. So I cheered like a madman… It could obviously have ended better, but it could also have been worse, because I could have abandoned.”
