Photo of Alaphilippe being flung against rocks at Tour is bloody scary

Dan Martin's Etixx-QuickStep Julian Alaphilippe has had a tough week at the Tour and his bad luck continued today when he took another massive hit (excuse the pun) today.

 

By Brian Canty

Today’s hilly 37.5-kilometre time-trial stage 13 in the south-east of France was always going to be challenging but in strong winds it proved especially so for Etixx-QuickStep flyweight climber Julian Alaphilippe.

The 24 year-old Frenchman’s GC ambitions went ‘off track’ on stage 8 last Saturday when he lost over 25 minutes but he was actually blown off course today during his test against the clock.

On a sweeping descent as he was really trucking, Alaphilippe - who was using a disc wheel - was blown into a wall of rocks on the left-hand side of the road.

 

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Finishing 2nd to Peter Sagan on stage 2 into Cherbourg two weeks ago. Alaphilippe's challenge has faded since then and he is lucky to be still in the race after his TT mishap (Photo: Sirotti)

 

He managed to remount and dust himself off but he did suffer some cuts and bruises that required medical attention after the stage.

And by the end of the day he had conceded over seven minutes to the winner Tom Dumoulin.

Data by the organisers showed Alaphilippe hit the rocks while descending at 51kph and was hit by a 42kph crosswind.

Ouch! He's a tough ol' operator though and tonight he tweeted this picture of himself.

 

 

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