Le Grand-Bornand, July 17th, ST10 – “I’m not happy because I would have liked to win – Ion Izagirre has a bitter smile – but today Julian Alaphilippe was simply the strongest”.
“On the penultimate climb, there was a moment when I suffered a lot but then I recovered and I started in pursuit. At the top, the French rider had an advantage of over 1’30 “, I recovered something downhill and on the last ascent I was full gas, but it was too late”.
“I would like to try again – concluded Ion – but now we have to focus on Vincenzo because now he is really ahead in the overall and me and my teammates are here at the Tour to help him the much as possible”.
After the first mountain stage, in fact, Vincenzo Nibali enters the GC Top Ten with 3’27 “gap from the race leader the Belgian Greg Van Avarmaet. “Perhaps the fans expected more attacks – he commented – but we went really strong and with that pace it becomes very difficult to take initiative. Tomorrow’s stage is short and explosive; I expect more fireworks “
Tomorrow, the second alpine stage with again a lot of climbs. From Albertville to La Rosière of only 108km but with two terrible ascents of Hors Catègorie and the finish line at the end of a 17km climb with an average gradient close to 6%. In short, another day of great show.
