Our rider lies fourth in the general classification ahead of the race’s toughest stage.
The Tirreno-Adriatico peloton faced a long and lumpy day on Saturday, 221 kilometers between Foligno, where Italian Champion Elia Viviani took his fourth win of the season just twenty-four hours earlier, and Fossombrone, a small town in the province of Pesaro and Urbino located not far from San Benedetto del Tronto, where the race is set to conclude next week.
The race exploded on the Monteguiduccio climb when Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) attacked and forced a selection before deciding to continue pushing alone at the front. Julian Alaphilippe was one of the first to respond and immediately began a chase, but with the others refusing to collaborate, the Kazakh forged a 50-second gap which he carried over the top of the penultimate ascent and into the last hill of the day.
Former Tirreno-Adriatico stage victor Zdenek Stybar gave a hand to his teammate and pulled the peloton before a series of acceleration on the savage 19% gradients of the Cappuccini decimated the field, leaving only three riders in pursuit of the sole leader, who got caught with 1400 meters left. The victor emerged from a four-up sprint, which Lutsenko won ahead of Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), the race’s overall leader.
Julian Alaphilippe came across the line 23 seconds later and sprinted to ninth place, a result which helped the stage 2 winner make a significant leap in the general classification, up to fourth place. The Frenchman, one of the most in-form riders of the season, will have another chance to make amends on Sunday, when the leg-sapping hills jammed in the final part of the stage to Recanati should lead to a flurry of attacks.
“It was one of the two tough and potentially decisive stages for the GC. We rode for Julian, who tried to follow when the three guys went up the road at the second ascent of the Cappuccini hill, but they were stronger and it’s no shame in that. The race is far from being over and we hope to get some more good results before drawing a line and moving our attention to Milano-Sanremo”, said sports director Wilfried Peeters.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images
Julian Alaphilippe 
