When you wear the rainbow jersey, what could be more logical after all than to go from yellow to green. Julian Alaphilippe already saw himself melting on the immense Laurent Fignon and his 22 days in yellow. But this Monday from Lorient, there will not be, for the moment, a yellowed 19th day. Instead, the world champion gets a new jersey, the green of the points classification. An outfit he had never dreamed of but which he will wear with fun. It allowed him to momentarily erase his disappointment. At the back of the line, recovering with difficulty from his effort after having greeted Mathieu Van Der Poel warmly and sincerely, he imagined himself returning to his bus immediately at the bottom of Mûr-de-Bretagne.
When asked to make it to the podium for a green jersey, he offered a surprised smile and split through the crowd, bottle in hand, thanking those who cheered him on.
“It's always nice to have a distinctive jersey,” he smiles.
Now I have worn all the jerseys on the Tour.
With elegance, he recognizes his defeat of the day.
“I have no regrets because I gave the maximum.
I didn't have to make excuses for myself and immediately felt that my legs were a little heavy.
Mathieu was simply stronger.
"
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One of Alaphilippe's great qualities is to ruminate on his disappointment for just a few minutes, before focusing on what follows. As much in 2020 in Privas, after losing his jersey for a stupid penalty for unauthorized refueling, he had decided to forget the general, as the Alaphilippe version 2021 is more vengeful. "The yellow jersey is magic but also a lot of responsibilities," he notes. Remember that this is only the 2nd step. I'm not far in the general classification, there are still a lot of stages looming… ”And Alaphilippe, who has more than one lap in his Tour, is never as good as when he is upset.
