Alaphilippe outsprints Van Avermaet as Adam Yates takes over race lead

Following up his win at Strade Bianche, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) continued his his winning streak on Tirreno-Adriatico stage 2 in a tough sprint

The first road stage of the 2019 Tirreno-Adriatico saw riders make their way south down the coast from Camaiore on a 195km parcours that took in two categorised climbs ahead of a final categorised ascent to Pomarance.

The day’s breakaway was able to form without a fight and after 20 kilometers with five riders .

The breakaway’s advantage reached a maximum of 4’20” and for the majority of the 195-kilometer stage, the breakaway hovered around 3’30” in front of the peloton, led by race leader Michael Hepburn’s Mitchelton-SCOTT team.

As more teams came to the front to assist with the chase in the final 30 kilometers, the breakaway’s advantage quickly decreased until the catch was made with 13 kilometers to go.

Van Avermaet was positioned well at the front of the bunch, as the fast pace and undulating terrain caused riders to drop from the group.

Riders started attacking from the bunch, which put Van Avermaet in the perfect position to respond to attacks from riders trying to avoid a sprint finish.

Van Avermaet was forced to chase a small group, that opened up a gap approaching three-kilometers to go, and made the catch just before the flamme rouge, which set the stage for the reduced bunch sprint to the line.

With 500-meters to go, Van Avermaet was perfectly positioned in third wheel and was the first rider to launch his sprint but was overtaken by Alaphilippe in the last hundred meters and settled for second place.

“Yesterday we lost a lot of time,” Alaphilippe said. “So I tried to win a stage and today was a good opportunity. I pushed myself to the limit to win. I surprise myself day after day.”

On Friday, the Frenchman says his Italian teammate Viviani might be the man to race for victory, “Tomorrow is a good day for Elia Viviani for the sprint,” Alaphilippe added.

Greg Van Avermaet said afterwards, “It was quite a good pace the whole day long. Mitchelton-SCOTT was controlling and Gijs and Guillaume set me up really well for the last climb. Actually, everything went perfectly for me. Michi did a good job closing some gaps and I just tried to stay as long as possible out of the wind and then came in the front in the last two kilometers. For me, the stage couldn’t have gone better and we executed our plan exactly as we said we would in the meeting. When you get second place it’s sad, but it’s the way it is and I was pretty happy with how the team and I performed today.”

“The finale was super hard but I said to myself from the beginning that I wouldn’t move with anybody unless it was a group of 20 guys. You have to choose the sprint and hope that everything comes back. It was good to have Michi there still to close some gaps and the group that went clear only took five or ten seconds so you knew with the final coming closer that they would be caught back. It was good for me like this.”

“Tomorrow is quite flat so I hope to survive as good as possible. We will see what happens in the final. We always have to be there to make sure there are no gaps in the final, and then we’ll see the next day. I think the day after is another good stage for me and hopefully, I can be up there again.”

2019 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 2 Top Ten

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 04:48:09
2 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team
3 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Education First
4 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
5 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
6 Valerio Conti (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
7 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma
8 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
10 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal