Julian Alaphilippe did not put his yellow jersey in danger on Tuesday on the road leading to Orcières Merlette.
The stage was won by the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, the favorite of this Grande Boucle.
How do you rate your day?
JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE.
It was a very quick day and a difficult day.
The goal was to keep the jersey and win the stage if possible.
I came close to victory and I will still be in yellow tomorrow (
Editor's note Wednesday
), so everything is fine.
For the stage, I fell harder and there are no regrets.
I thank my team who did a wonderful job.
I am very proud of her.
It's a great pleasure to be in yellow one more day.
Can you describe your ascent to Orcières?
It got on a very fast train.
My team really did a great job.
At the end, I was left with Dries (Devenyns) and Bob (Jungels).
I was in maximum effort to follow the train of the Jumbo.
I threw a little kick behind to see that there were attacks coming but the pace was so high it was difficult to put one in.
Could you win this stage?
The great satisfaction is to always be in yellow even if winning a second stage would have been something special.
But the Tour is still very long.
The objective is not to win the Tour but to keep the jersey and go further to win stages.
How do you feel physically?
There is nothing comparable with 2019. I'm in yellow, I had the legs today to follow the best and that's really good.
Is Roglic's Jumbo Team As Strong As It Looks?
She's been very strong for quite a while.
She showed it during the Dauphiné.
She demonstrated it again in the last ascent.
She has a very big collective.
She says she wants to win the Tour de France and that's what she's here for.
There is a lot of work until Paris to get there.
We continue to take the race day after day by taking our responsibilities.
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This team will attack you again, especially on Thursday towards Mont Aigoual ...
Honestly, I haven't looked at the next steps.
We have seen that it is complicated to follow the rhythm of this team.
My plan for that doesn't change.
Tomorrow is another day, we'll see what happens.