Tour of Britain: Alaphilippe wins stage 3

Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) triumphed on stage 3 of the 2018 Tour of Britain, winning in a reduced bunch sprint on the Downs in Bristol.

After a short but leg-sapping day in the hilly terrain south of Bristol, Alaphilippe profited from a strong lead-out from teammate Bob Jungels on the home straight and held off Patrick Bevin (BMC Racing) and Emils Liepins (ONE Pro Cycling) to take the victory.

Race leader Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) was distanced on the late haul up to and over the Clifton Suspension Bridge and slipped out of the green jersey.

Despite the presence of Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott), who'd started the day second overall on the same time as Tonelli, in the front group, the overall lead went to Bevin thanks to time bonuses. Starting the day eight seconds down, the Kiwi collected six seconds for his runner-up finish and two seconds for being second at the first intermediate sprint of the day.

Meyer, then, still finds himself in second place, tied on time with the leader - albeit a different leader - while Alaphilippe moves up to third overall at two seconds.

"I'm really really happy - like always when we win - but especially today because we tried since start of the race and today we knew it was a good opportunity," said Alaphilippe.

"The team did a great job all day, they controlled the race - especially the finale With Bob we were together trying to attack or maybe sprint with me and in the end he did a perfect lead-out. I was also really happy to finish the job of my team with a nice victory."

The stage was short at 125km but typical of the Tour of Britain with grippy and near-constantly undulating roads. Though a sizeable group made it to the finish - including Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) - it was, as Bevin noted, a sprint that "almost happened in slow-motion".

The legs were further sapped by the fact that the racing was aggressive throughout, with no true breakaway forming. Following the early intermediate sprint the riders hit the Mendip Hills, where the short climb of Cuck Hill preceded the iconic Cheddar Gorge ascent, but nothing stuck.

After Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) had attacked over the top of Cheddar Gorge, stage 1 winner André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) did succeed in driving a move clear - along with Matthew Holmes (Madison-Genesis), Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo), and Romain Cardis (Direct Energie), and later Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step Floors), and Dmitri Strakhov (Katusha-Alpecin) - but they only lasted around 20km as Team Sky worked on the front of the peloton.

Another move soon went, with just over 50km to go, and gained more ground. Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) initiated it with a solo attack and was later joined by Ben Swift (Great Britain), Jon Mould (JLT-Condor), and Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie). They never extended their lead beyond the minute-mark and were caught on the approach back to Bristol with 9km to go.

The late climb of Providence Lane - short at 1km but steep at 8.8% threatened to shatter the bunch late on. Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Tom Pidcock (Wiggins) both attacked but no one really opened up a gap, even if the strung-out bunch had reduced in number.

Though uncategorized, the riders had to tackle another steep climb up towards the finish on the Downs, which further thinned out the bunch. BMC were prominent in the final couple of kilometres but Quick-Step seized control on the home straight - ever so slightly uphill - through Jungels. It was a strong lead-out but Alaphilippe had to adapt as Mads Wurst Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) tried to catch him off guard by going from range. Alaphilippe jumped straight onto the wheel before finishing the job.

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