Alaphilippe stuns the sprinters in Tirreno-Adriatico

Deceuninck – Quick-Step places two riders on the penultimate stage podium and takes season tally to 18 wins.

Inside 300 meters to go in Jesi, a small town located not far from the coast of the Adriatic, where the race will conclude on Tuesday. A slightly uphill finish which shouldn’t really put any problems to the sprinters. And Max Richeze doing one of his legendary lead-outs and placing his leader in a prime position with 150 meters left. But coming off his wheel isn’t Italian Champion and stage 3 victor Elia Viviani, but Julian Alaphilippe, who measures his sprint perfectly, takes everyone by surprise and surges to his sixth victory of the year.

That was the main story of 195km-long Tirreno-Adriatico stage 6, which Deceuninck – Quick-Step controlled with Kasper Asgreen and Belgian Champion Yves Lampaert, the latter taking over the reins at the head of the bunch some 20 kilometers from the finish, on the second lap of the Jesi circuit, thus making sure the remnants of the original seven-man breakaway would be brought to heel before the sprinters’ big showdown.

Deceuninck – Quick-Step was all over the front of the pack, dominating the closing kilometres, and it was on the drag to the finish that as soon as Michael Mørkøv peeled off the front, Max Richeze’s brilliant lead-out helped Julian Alaphilippe pull out a small gap on the others and hit the front with 150 meters left, from where the livewire Frenchman put in a huge turn of pace and delivered the team’s 18th victory of the season.

“Wow, it’s such a perfect Tirreno-Adriatico for us. It’s been a successful week for Deceuninck – Quick-Step here in Italy and I am glad I could finish off the squad’s amazing work today. Kasper, Yves Max, everybody contributed to the pace and did a magnificent job on this stage, and for that I am extremely grateful”, said the first Frenchman in three decades to have won a brace of stages at a single Tirreno-Adriatico edition.

Joining 26-year-old Julian on the podium was Elia Viviani, who finished third in Jesi and continued his impressive start to the season, while the experienced Richeze concluded in sixth position, further underlining the team’s dominance in the stage 6 final.

“During the stage, Elia told me it was going to be a hard sprint and that he didn’t feel that good, so I was free to try and go for it. Everybody was tired today, you could see that in the bunch. I told him that we will see, then in the last kilometer I found myself on Max’s wheel and as soon as he dropped me in the front, I went full gas and that was it. I can’t tell you how happy and proud I am of my team, whom I want to thank, because this is also their victory.”

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images