Tour de France: Alaphilippe wins in Le Grand Bornand

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Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) claimed his first Tour de France stage win in style in Le Grand Bornand, parlaying a 30km-long solo attack over two mountains into his career's biggest victory.

The Frenchman was part of a 21-rider breakaway that escaped early in the stage, and after taking the maximum points on the Col de Bluffy and Montée du plateau des Glières, he attacked to crest the Col de Romme alone and then pressed on to keep his solo lead over the Col de la Colombière and on the long descent to the finish.

Alaphilippe collapsed at the finish line, a mix of pain, exhaustion and tears of joy shifting across his face.

"There's a lot of emotion, because winning at the Tour is not easy," Alaphilippe said. "I came close in my first Tour two years ago, and to win in this way, it's unexpected because... I don't even have the words... I'm just thinking about my family. I'm happy to make them happy. I'm happy for myself as well. Now I hope things go well for Bob [Jungels] on GC, and there are lots of great things still do, but today I really want to enjoy this."

The 26-year-old was a favourite for stage 6 to the Mur de Bretagne, but he missed the winning move and finished fourth. To win in the Alps was a vindication.

"I was disappointed on the Mur de Bretagne, it suited me well. I lost to stronger riders, simple as that, the legs weren't as good as I'd hoped. So to bounce back like that is the perfect response."

Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) out-paced Rein Taaramae (Direct Energie) for second on the stage.

Alaphilippe's effort gave him a healthy lead in the mountains classification, but more importantly, the thrill of standing atop the podium as a Tour stage winner.

Race leader Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) earned the day's most aggressive rider prize, going into the breakaway and then holding on to pad his advantage over the GC contenders. He came in fourth on the stage, 1:44 behind Alaphilippe - but more importantly, 1:39 ahead of the Dan Martin-led peloton, ensuring a longer spell in the maillot jaune.

Van Avermaet now leads Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) by 2:22 in the general classification, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) into third at 3:10.

Some of the pre-race favourites suffered in the rude transition from the cobbles of Roubaix to the high mountains of the Alps - Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) lost 51 seconds, while Rigoberto Uran (EF-Drapac), who crashed heavily on stage 9, struggled in 2:36 down after being distanced on the Colombiere.

How it unfolded

The first hard mountain stage directly after a rest day was always going to be a challenge for the Tour de France contenders, but some had worse luck than others. Mikel Landa (Movistar), already the victim of a crash on Sunday's stage 9, had another fall in the neutral zone when he, Fernando Gaviria, and several other riders ran into some plastic traffic bollards.

The fall delayed the start, but they all got back up and when the flag dropped the attacks flew, with Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) sparking the day's successful breakaway.

He was joined by green jersey holder Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) - looking to capture some points at the intermediate sprint in Thônes, Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data) and Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Samsic), and then on the first of five classified ascents, the category 4 Col de Bluffy, the group swelled 21 riders, including none other than the maillot jaune himself, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC).

Tony Gallopin (AG2R), Elie Gesbert and Amaël Moinard (Fortuneo-Samsic), Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), Jack Bauer and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Julian Alaphilippe and Philippe Gilbert (Quick Step), Peter Sagan and Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Serge Pauwels and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data), David Gaudu, Rudy Molard and Arthur Vichot (Groupama-FDJ), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Lilian Calmejane and Rein Taaramäe (Direct Energie), Guillaume Martin and Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) made up that group.

Sagan duly claimed the maximum points, and the large group held nearly three minutes over the peloton ahead of the category 1 Col de la Croix Fry. Molard put in an attack and was followed by Taaramae, splitting the group. Sagan lost contact with the lead group, but Van Avermaet continued with Pauwels, Gaudu, Gilbert, Moinard and Postlberger, eventually linking up with the two attackers on the descent.

On the Col des Glières, Gilbert, Postlberger, and Moinard lost contact with the leaders, but a chasing group from behind Gesink, Alaphilippe, Gallopin, Izagirre, Martin, Moinard, Gesbert and Calmejane managed to bridge across.

That made 13 riders out front with Alaphilippe taking the maximum points over the top of the hors-categorie Glières and then tearing along solo over a section of gravel on the other side before sitting up and waiting for the chase.

Chris Froome punctured on the gravel section and then had two more stops for bike changes before he smoothly made his way back to the peloton in the valley.

Eighteen riders continued at the front, with Sagan and Postlberger heading back to the peloton with 50km to go, as the breakaway held a seven-minute advantage on the bunch as they headed toward the category 1 Col de Romme.

Calmejane set a vigorous pace as the Romme kicked up, sending Gilbert, Degand, Gallopin, Moinard and Slagter out the back of the group. Guillaume Martin also struggled, surprisingly, but Van Avermaet held tough to the group despite repeated accelerations. Direct Energie's Rein Taaramae snuck away with 34km to go and steadily pulled out a gap on his former companions.

Alaphilippe kicked with 31km to go, leaving the maillot jaune to chase with the remnants of the breakaway, and then bridging across to Taaramae and leaving him behind briefly at the top to take maximum points for the polka dot jersey. The duo began the descent with 45 seconds over Van Avermaet's group.

Behind, there was not much action in the peloton, aside from AG2R La Mondiale leading out the sprint to the base of the climb. Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) put in an attack at the base of the Romme with 36km to go, but he was reeled in by the steady tempo of Team Sky and filtered to the back of the group four kilometers later. Sky's Jonathan Castroviejo kept the gap to the escape steady around five and a half minutes for much of the Romme.

Alaphilippe left behind Taaramae as the Colombiere kicked up, the Estonian fading dramatically backwards. The Frenchman was buoyed by the crowd as he crested the category 1 climb with two minutes over Izagirre, with Taaramae, Pauwels and Van Avermaet a bit further back, and the Sky-led peloton five minutes down.

Rigoberto Uran (EF-Drapac) lost contact with the Sky group before the top, his chances of a repeat Tour podium quickly fading. Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) was the next to go with 1km left to climb, while Bauke Mollema, Rafal Majka and Ilnur Zakarin were also forced to chase on the descent - losing a minute to Thomas.

Alaphilippe, however, was unstoppable, taking out a huge victory - his team's third stage win of the race - while the other main conteders came through 3:23 down.

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