Tour de France news - 'Exhausted, happy, proud' Julian Alaphilippe not frustrated with fifth

“Why should I be frustrated?” the Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider said afterwards.

“I’m just exhausted, happy, proud of what I did, what we did with the team that wasn’t the best equipped to win. We’ve had some great times.

“In my career, it will have changed a lot of things. It’s just sport, moments of life you have to enjoy. It’s nice.”

Alaphilippe had started the stage in second, but dropped down the field with around 13km to go, allowing Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) to move ahead of him.

“I gave it my all. I think it was hard to do better,” he reflected.

“I was expecting to explode at some point. But I still maintained well. I’m very proud of what my team-mate Enric Mas did for me, it was his job and he did it really well. Without him, I would have finished at a quarter of an hour, I think. That’s my temperament. With me, it’s a bit all or nothing.

“I was second overall before the stage this morning. If I was second, or fifth, it was the same for me but I fought because I didn’t want to have any regrets. I can only be proud of my Tour. It’s even way beyond what I would have imagined.”