Julian Alaphilippe, the rider who more than any other helped turn the 2019 edition into a thriller, again showered the Tour de France with his class and guile Sunday, poaching victory on stage 2.
A final burst of acceleration timed with precision enabled Alaphilippe to shake two pursuers and hold off the main pack of riders furiously gaining ground on the finishing straight.
Alaphilippe kissed his finger and raised it to the sky as he crossed the line, an apparent tribute to his recently deceased father.
He is now back in yellow, thanks to time bonuses picked up for winning the stage and on the final climb of the arduous day of riding through mountains north of Nice.
And while Alaphilippe is playing down any hope of winning the overall title in Paris in three weeks, he intends to cling onto the coveted jersey for as long as he can.
”The yellow jersey has to be respected,” he said. ”I will defend it with honor.”
“I just wanted to dedicate this victory to my dad. It meant a lot to me and I’m happy I did it.”
“I had asked the team to toughen up the final and that’s what we did,” Alaphilippe said. “When I made my effort, I didn’t ask myself any questions, I just gave everything I had. I had nothing to lose. Afterwards, they tried to play a little bit with my nerves but before that, Adam Yates collaborated well.”
Tour de France 2020 – stage 2 results (Nice-Nice):
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:55:27 |
| 2 | Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 3 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01” |
| 4 | Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) | +02” |
| 5 | Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 6 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 7 | Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) | ,, |
| 8 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 9 | Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 10 | Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 11 | Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 12 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 13 | Damiano Caruso (Bahrain McLaren) | ,, |
| 14 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | ,, |
| 15 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 16 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | ,, |
| 17 | Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 18 | Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) | ,, |
| 19 | Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 20 | Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
Tour de France 2020 – general classification after stage 2:
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 8:41:35 |
| 2 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +04” |
| 3 | Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) | +07” |
| 4 | Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) | +17” |
| 5 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 6 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 7 | Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 8 | Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 9 | Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 10 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 11 | Primoz Roglic (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 12 | Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) | ,, |
| 13 | Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) | ,, |
| 14 | Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 15 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 16 | Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 17 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 18 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 19 | Enric Mas (Movistar) | ,, |
| 20 | Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
