After months of misery, Julian Alaphilippe won the 12th stage of the Tour of Italy alone, Thursday in Fano, by losing his breakaway companion Mirco Maestri in the last difficulty of the day, after an extraordinary raid of 126 kilometers. This is the first victory for the Frenchman in almost a year and his stage success at the Critérium du Dauphiné in June 2023, and his most beautiful since his second world title in Louvain in 2021.
109th rider in history to have won a stage in the three Grand Tours
The Soudal-Quick Step rider also became the 109th rider in history to have won a stage on the three major Tours (France, Italy and Spain). It is also the third French victory in this 107th edition of the Giro after those of Benjamin Thomas and Valentin Paret-Peintre. “Ah, that feels good,” said Alaphilippe upon arrival. The 31-year-old French puncher won after a fantastic and almost unexpected ride in the company of the modest Italian rider Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa).
After placing a first attack 138 kilometers from the goal, “Alaf” isolated himself thirteen kilometers further with Maestri. Launched into a crazy attempt, the two men worked together perfectly to keep several groups of pursuers at bay in this hilly stage ideal for breakaways. Alaphilippe finally let go of his “fuga” companion 11.5 km from the finish in the last wall to then resist the return of the pursuers, the Colombian Jhonatan Narvaez and the Belgian Quinten Hermans, who came to die at around thirty seconds.
For the Frenchman, who is competing in his first Giro at almost 32 years old, this victory, the 42nd of his career, is an act of rebirth after several difficult months and even years. Overwhelmed by falls, injuries and controversies with his boss Patrick Lefevere, he notably raced the Tour of Flanders in the spring with a fracture in his knee, an injury that he initially hid so as not to give the impression of “making excuses”.
He marks his rebirth in a country that he loves and where he won several of his greatest successes, Milan-Sanremo and the Strade Bianche in 2019 as well as the World Championships in Imola in 2020. The Slovenian Tadej Pogacar kept his leader’s pink jersey on Thursday, at the end of a quiet stage for the favorites who arrived more than five minutes after the winner.