Julian Alaphilippe shocked the sprinters and won a bunch sprint in Monday’s sixth and penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico.
The 26-year-old crossed ahead of Italians Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy) and Deceuninck-Quick-Step teammate Elia Viviani, who were second and third respectively.
It was the second win for Alaphilippe after his stage two triumph.
“We wanted to do a good lead-out for Elia, but on the last lap, he told me if I wanted to try the sprint… I said ‘OK, I will be your last lead-out man,'” Alaphilippe said. “In the end, Max Richeze did a really impressive last big pull, and I was behind. I saw the line at 200 metres and I just went full gas. It’s incredible.”
Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) holds the leader’s blue jersey going into Tuesday’s final stage in the ‘Race of the Two Seas’.
The seventh stage is a quick 10km individual time-trial down the flat Adriatic seafront at San Benedetto del Tronto.
It's a second stage win at #TirrenoAdriatico for @alafpolak who outsprints his team-mate Elia Viviani! pic.twitter.com/ROf0jejJz6
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) March 18, 2019
Tirreno-Adriatico 2019 – stage 6 results (Matelica – Jesi):
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:42:11 |
| 2 | Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 3 | Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 4 | Clement Venturini (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 5 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 6 | Maximiliano Richeze (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 7 | Jens Keukeleire (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 8 | Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) | ,, |
| 9 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 10 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
Tirreno-Adriatico 2019 – general classification after stage 6:
| 1 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | 25:15:59 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | +25” |
| 3 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +35” |
| 4 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +01’55” |
| 5 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +02’24” |
| 6 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +02’39” |
| 7 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +02’46” |
| 8 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +02’58” |
| 9 | Simon Clarke (EF Education First) | +03’03” |
| 10 | Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) | +03’26” |
