'The radio was broken' - Alaphilippe celebrates in error in Tour finale

Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) mistakenly celebrated winning stage 15 of the Tour de France in Carcassonne on Sunday, unaware that he had actually finished third behind solo winner Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

It was a chaotic stage on the Tour de France, where the fight for the breakaway remained relentless for a long time, with numerous groups clear and battling for the stage win. It was particularly chaotic for Alaphilippe, who was involved in a nasty crash with around 150 kilometres remaining in the stage.

The former two-time world champion looked to be in a world of pain initially, but he was eventually able to continue and even go on the attack. It was a perfect illustration of the Frenchman's fighting spirit and resilience, and his determined comeback culminated in the sprint for third place, which he mistakenly believed was for the win. 

Raphael Meyer, General Manager of Tudor Pro Cycling, spoke to TNT Sports after the stage finish to explain the situation with a broken radio caused by the crash, which was a key factor behind the Frenchman's confusion. 

"We all realised he crashed pretty early in the stage, we already feared that something was broken, then he got back on the bike, with quite already a gap, and he could re-enter the bunch, and then even the first group, so he was there," Meyer said to TNT Sports. 

"But unfortunately, the radio was broken and the race was so full on, as we’ve seen the whole day, that there wasn’t even time to change the radio. So the radio was not working." 

With Alaphilippe working his way through the groups, he wasn't at the front of the race when Tim Wellens made his race-winning move, from a group that featured his teammate Michael Storer. 

The majority of the scattered breakaway groups formed into one behind Wellens in the finale, and whilst Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike) escaped for 2nd, Alaphilippe proved to be the fastest from a group of 22 riders, beating Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) to third. 

"Of course, they come back to that group of Michael Storer, who by the way did an amazing job today, an amazing stage, an amazing race, then LouLou comes, goes in the sprint, does a perfect sprint, and yeah, he thought he won, what can we do?" said Meyer.

Meyer also reflected beyond the confusion for Alaphilippe to look positively at what was a good day for Tudor at the Tour overall, with a third-place finish on the stage with the Frenchman and another strong stage from Storer.

“Yeah, exactly, every single day, no, he thought he won, we also thought, hey it’s super nice to be third, if this morning we said we are third in the stage, we are happy and with everything that happened, even without this happening we would be happy, so it has happened," Meyer said. 

“We are third, we have Michael Storer being most combative today, so I think we’ve had a good day, and let’s hope that Julian has no severe injuries and we can start again on Tuesday," he added as Alaphilippe reportedly made his way to the hospital to assess the damage from the crash. 

If Alaphilippe is fit to continue beyond the second rest day, the 3rd place finish on an attritional and hot day in the hills in Occitaine should give him plenty of enthusiasm to attack in the third week of the Tour de France as the race heads to the Alps after a visit to Mont Ventoux on Tuesday. 

Alaphilippe later revisited the incident in an interview with France Télévisions. 

“It was a great stage with Michael Storer in the breakaway, which was the team’s goal,” Alaphilippe said. “Unfortunately, my radio wasn't working after my crash, so I tried to sprint as hard as I could and, like an idiot, I raised my hands when there were guys in front of me. It could have ended better, but I could have gone home too, so it's okay.”