Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) claimed his first victory of the year on Stage 2 of the 2021 Tirenno-Adriatico in a hard and long uphill finish in Chiusdino where Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) rounded out a formidable podium after João Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step), previously ahead along with Simon Yates (BikeExchange), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), was reeled in over the last few hundred meters. Van Aert retained the lead in the overall ranking.
The stage winner Julian Alaphilippe, said: “It’s been a finale full of suspense. It was very intense. During the race, the rhythm was always very high. For us, it was excellent that João Almeida was at the front. When Geraint Thomas made his move, I understood my time had come to make my move too, even though there was a headwind. It’s a special feeling to win with the rainbow jersey in Italy, the country where I conquered it. I’ve realized that it’s more difficult to win races with this jersey, so it makes today’s victory even sweeter. Milano-Sanremo will be another story, maybe it will be similar with the same contenders but it’s not the story of today. I don’t want to think about it yet.”
The Maglia Azzurra Wout van Aert, said: “I didn’t ask other teams to work. Maybe our sports director did but I was quite confident that especially UAE Team Emirates would come to help, but on the climbs, with the attacks, I was never really afraid. I said to the guys to ride as fast as possible. We didn’t close it quickly but we kept the breakaway a short distance ahead of us. João Almeida survived for so long and it was a hard sprint. The upcoming stages will be very difficult to control but the short steep climbs should suit me well. But when it comes to Saturday with such a long uphill finish, I’m more in the unknown. Both stages will be crucial. Teams like UAE Team Emirates and Ineos Grenadiers will set up a mountain train but we have strong guys too. However, I’m confident because today’s stage was already quite hard and we managed it well.”
2021 Tirenno-Adriatico: Stage 2 Brief Results
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick Step), 202km in 5h01’32”, average speed 40.195kph
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) s.t.
- Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 2:
- Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma)
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick Step) at 4″
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) at 8″
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