THE NOTICE
Friday morning, two French riders could still hope to win the Tour de France. Saturday, only one will fight for the podium. At the 16th stage, Thibaut Pinot gave up and Julian Alaphilippe gave up his yellow leader's jersey. Now defeated at 48 seconds Egan Bernal, the runner of the Deceuninck-Quick Step, who has stuck on the slopes of the Iseran, will probably have the goal of staying on the podium. Geraint Thomas (Ineos) is only 28 seconds behind and Steven Kruisjwijk (Jumbo-Visma) at 40 seconds.
"Obviously that Julian Alaphilippe, having lost the yellow jersey, may not be quite the same man," said our specialist Patrick Chassé. "We can think that he will fight, that he will continue anyway to do everything to preserve a place on the podium.But he may have, although I do not wish him of course, a kind of In the head, something may have broken. " Asked about the loss of yellow jersey, Alaphilippe did not seem to have hit the mark. "From the moment I donned the yellow jersey, I started to dream but I never thought that I could win the Tour," he reacted to the microphone of France Televisions.
Heard on europe1:
I found Egan Bernal a little too emotional, because the Tour is not finished
If the 2nd place of Alaphilippe hangs by a thread, the majority of observers agrees rather to say that Bernal, him, took a step almost decisive towards the final victory. But Patrick Chassé is cautious. "It's true that we saw a very emotional Egan Bernal," says Patrick Chassé. "I found a bit too much, because the Tour is not finished Tomorrow, there is the long climb to Val Thorens and as we saw failures, we can also see tomorrow and the failure she can overwhelm different people. " Saturday, the last stage of this alpine trilogy will lead the runners Albertville Val Thorens, 130 km, with the rise of Cormet Roselend (1st category) and the climb to Val Thorens (33.4 km to 5.5 %).