Alaphilippe Celebrates Victory...Then Discovers Wellens Won Long Before

Frenchman Unaware Belgian Had Already Taken Stage Win Because of Radio Damage

- Jeremy Whittle

French stage wins in the Tour de France are increasingly rare, so when they do happen, there are wild celebrations. Julian Alaphilippe, the former world road race champion, raised his arms in triumph in Carcassonne, thinking he had won, only to be told seconds later that he had in fact finished third behind two Belgians.

Ahead of Alaphilippe, Tadej Pogacar's Emirates-XRG teammate Tim Wellens took a solo win on stage 15 of the Tour, well ahead of compatriot Victor Campanaerts, a teammate to Jonas Vingegaard.

"Julian's radio wasn't working," Alaphilippe's Tudor Pro team manager, Raphael Meyer, said in an effort to explain his rider's ecstatic but misplaced fist pump. A win from the French rider would have been all the more remarkable, given he had crashed earlier in the stage and popped back a dislocated shoulder, all on his own.

For Vingegaard it was another stressful day on which his Visma-Lease Bike team showed questionable strategy. They have one day good, the next bad, while Pogacar and his team remain a model of consistency.