Tour Colombia: Alaphilippe wins stage 5

Image 1 of 17

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won stage 5 of the Tour Colombia 2.1 on Saturday with a powerful sprint to beat Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) and Richard Carapaz (Movistar). The Frenchman also rode into the overall lead, taking the jersey from teammate Bob Jungels.

The stage looked to be heading towards a two-man battle after Dani Martinez (EF Education First) and Ivan Sosa (Team Sky) attacked and went clear inside the final 10 kilometres. At that point, Alaphilippe was unable to hold the pace set by the Colombian riders, but he came back to the duo, alongside Carapaz and Lopez, inside the final kilometre. 

The Frenchman immediately hit the front once the juncture was made and showed no hesitation as he rounded the final corners and jumped a set of speed bumps as the line approached. His kick for the line was definitive, allowing him plenty of time to savour the win.

"I'm just so happy to win today," Alaphlippe said after the stage. "It was my goal to try and win a stage. My team has won two stages and today is special. We will continue to take the responsibility. It was not my goal when I came in here to win the tour, so it's like a bonus for me and I want to enjoy it. Tomorrow is for sure a really hard day. I did everything today to try and win the stage in the front in the breakaway."

Alaphlippe now leads the overall by eight seconds over Martinez and 23 seconds over Astana's Migle Angel Lopez. Sosa is the top-played Team Sky rider in fourth, 29 seconds back.

Early on in the stage, Chris Froome (Team Sky) was held up in crash and was unable to regain contact with the lead group. He finished with large group juts three minutes under the time cut. Team Sky's Egan Bernal, who finished the stage in group that was 42 seconds back, is in both at 1:05.

How it unfolded

Saturday's stage 5 started in La Union and made its way to a circuit around La Ceja and Retiro, where the peloton raced four laps before heading back to the finish back in La Union. The lumpy circuit started and finished at 2,476m above sea level and topped out twice on Alta La Union at 2,476m.

The stage offered intermediate sprints with the usual time bonuses at 49.6km, 87.5km and 125.4km. Five KOMs were up for grabs on the stage, with points on offer atop the category 3 Alto Nano on each of the four laps and a final KOM at the category 2 Alto la Union just 4.7km from the finish.

A dangerous breakaway got away early in the day and started the fireworks. In the move were Óscar Sevilla (Team Medellin), Rodrigo Contreras (Astana), Alexis Camacho (Coldeportes Zenu), Ivan Sosa (Team Sky), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck Quick Step), Winner Anacona (Movistar) and Dani Martinez (EF Education First), Richard Carapaz (Movistar), Edward Beltran (Team Medellin), Oscar Quiroz (Strongman Bicycles), Juan Pablo Suarez (GW Shimano), Brayan Sanchez (Orgulla Paisa) and Aalvaro Duarte (Colombia).

Alaphilippe took the three-second bonus at the first sprint and moved into the virtual lead. Sevilla and Martinez collected two seconds and one second, respectively. At the second sprint, Martinez beat Sosa and Sevilla for the maximum bonus as the gap grew to 2:45.

An early crash knocked Chris Froome (Team Sky) out of contention, but with Sosa in the break and Egan Bernal in the peloton, Team Sky was set up well for the finale. Overnight leader Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Movistar's Nairo Quintana and Astana's Migel Angel Lopez were also in the main group, which was much reduced as the battle of attrition started on the first lap.

Full Results