Tour of California: Alaphilippe wins queen stage

Just as he did 12-months ago, Julian Alaphilippe rode to victory on the queen stage of the Tour of California with a solo win ahead of Peter Stetina on the steep slopes of Gibraltar Road to move into the yellow jersey. The Etixx-Quick Step rider caught then passed Stetina in the closing stages of the climb to finish 15 seconds clear of the Trek-Segafredo rider in what was the first test for the general classification riders.

"I am really happy, it is the my first victory of the season," said Alaphilippe in a post-race television interview. "Today there was a bit of stress in the peloton because everybody knows and everybody waits until the last climb for the final fight so Cannondale did a good job all the day with the control. For me personally, the goal of the team was to be in a really good position for the last climb in the beginning and I was in the first position, thank you to me team for keeping eyes on me all day. I was really surprised to be in a good position in the last two k's and could also make a good effort to take the victory as well so I am happy."

Stetina looked to be riding to the win as he accelerated away from Lachlan Morton (Jelly-Belly) and Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) with just over 2km to the summit. Cheered on by boisterous fans on the 10% gradients, Stetina's move forced a reaction from the chase group that had been controlled by Cannondale and BMC who were looking to set up Lawson Craddock and Brent Bookwalter respectively. However, it was Alaphilippe and George Bennett of Team LottoNl-Jumbo who led the chase of Stetina.

Just after the flamme rouge, Alaphilippe sprinted past Powless and keep pounding his pedals until catching Stetina at 400 metres to race. Stetina jumped on Alaphilippe's wheel but couldn't match the Frenchman's kick which took him to the stage win and onto the podium as race leader.

"I am always motivated so motivation is not a problem, it's just that this year is a little bit different," said the 23-year-old of his ambitions to win the race overall. "Last year I was in good shape for the general classification but after Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the classics season I did a break so its my first race after a little break for the second part of the season so its different." 

Bennett and Bookwalter were the next best riders on the road before Powless capped off one his best day's on the bike yet with fifth place, followed home by the GC men.

As it stands, Alaphilippe has a 19 second advantage over Stetina with New Zealander Bennett third at 31 seconds although it is Bookwalter (fourth at 27 seconds) and his teammate Rohan Dennis (eighth at 58 seconds) who look likely to take the race lead after the 20km stage 6 Folsom time trial.

"I am not prepared for the general classification but I don’t know, we never know, I do our best every day. It's a long TT, 20km, so its not my speciality, I am not really good for the TT but we will see uh," added Alaphilippe.

How it happened

The early break was formed when Andrew Tennant (Team WIGGINS), Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare), Gregory Daniel (Axeon Hagens Berman), Krists Neilands (Axeon Hagens Berman) and Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) pushed clear.

Huffman had moved into the lead in the KOM jersey on stage 2 and his intentions were clear once more. The five leaders were soon joined by Julian Arredondo (Trek-Segafredo) and Oscar Clark (Holowesko-Citadel).

It was Huffman who took maximum points on the first climb of the stage, beating Clark into second, with Daniel in third.

The peloton, meanwhile, were marshalled carefully by Cannondale as they protected the lead of Ben King, who had beaten Huffman on stage 2 and moved into the leader's jersey as a result.

The seven leaders were able to establish a lead of just over four minutes roughly 100 kilometres into the stage. The gap began to come down as the race headed towards the second climb of the day, where Clark took his revenge and beat Huffman to the line.

They swapped positions once more on the penultimate climb but with the peloton hot on their heels and the gap reduced to 2:35 with 40 kilometres to go.
Tennant's acceleration to pick up the bonus seconds at the final intermediate sprint briefly split the cohesion in the break, just as the peloton began to organise a more thorough chase as BMC came to the front.

Both Clark and Huffman were distanced when Putt hit the front on an uncategorised climb – the former two saving the powder for another KOM battle later in the race. Putt once more went on the front foot with the gap down to 1:25 and with 20 kilometres remaining. Only Daniel could follow.

The pace at the front of the peloton and the tussle for position saw Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) and Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) hit the deck. Team Sky confirming post race the British champion had broken his collarbone.

Up ahead and the leading pair still had a minute of an advantage as they hit the lower slopes of Gibraltar Road. Once on the climb, Daniel started to ride away from Putt before the two young riders were brought back. Despite being the youngest rider in the race, Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) wasn't intimated by his older and more experienced rivals as he was the first rider to attack off the front of the peloton and open up a gap of 30 seconds.

Morton and then Stetina made their moves to bridge up with Powless as Cannondale had Andrew Talansky setting the chase pace and whittling down the lead. Stetina decided to go on his own and ride away from Morton and Powless and opened up a gap as the riders started to move from the chase group.

Once Alaphilippe made his move, the focus was centred on the Etixx - Quick-Step rider and whether he would repeat his Mt Baldy antics as a known quality compared to his relatively anonymity from 12 months when he surprised the peloton by taking the stage and yellow jersey double. In the end there was no question as Alaphilippe became the 11th rider from his team to enjoy a victory in 2016 on the same day his teammate Bob Jungels pulled on the pink jersey at the Giro d'italia.

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