Julian Alaphilippe wins 2018 Tour of Slovakia

Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) continued his incredible season with overall victory in the Tour of Slovakia on Sunday. The Frenchman, who won two stages and the king of the mountains competition at the Tour de France earlier in the summer, finished 16 seconds ahead of Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), while Cesare Benedetti (BORA - hansgrohe) rounded out the podium, finishing a further six seconds down.

"I am very happy to take another overall victory, which wouldn't have been possible without the amazing job of all my teammates, who protected me throughout the week. It feels incredible to replicate my Tour of Britain feat and add another line to my palmares. I come out of this race with a good morale and strong condition, which augurs well having the Worlds just around the corner," Alaphilippe said in a press release issued by his team.

The Frenchman heads into the World Championships as one of the redhot favourites after also winning San Sebastian and a stage and the overall at the recent Tour of Britain.

The final stage of the Tour of Slovakia was taken by Alaphilippe's young teammate, Fabio Jakobsen. The Dutch rider was the fastest sprinter on the 161.8km stage from Nitra to Galanta, with Matteo Pelucchi (Bora) and Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) completing the top three.

"Slovakia has been a really hard race, with a lot of climbing, and even today, when we had a flat stage, it wasn't easy, as we averaged around 45km/h. The team controlled the break and made sure everything came back together before the final, where Julian and Yves put me in a perfect position," Jakobsen said.

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