(UTV|COLOMBO) – Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe claimed an impressive solo victory on stage 10 of the Tour de France as Greg van Avermaet extended his overall lead.
Alaphilippe went clear with just under 30km to go and held his advantage over the final climb to take his first Tour stage win in Le Grand-Bornand.
BMC’s Van Avermaet got into the early breakaway and held on to finish fourth, behind Ion Izagirre and Rein Taaramae.
The Belgian now leads Britain’s Geraint Thomas by two minutes and 22 seconds.
Four-time winner Chris Froome is up to sixth overall, three minutes and 21 seconds back on Van Avermaet, while fellow Briton Adam Yates is seventh, on the same time.
Team Sky and the other general classification teams know Van Avermaet, who is not a pure climber, should still lose the race lead over the next two days in the Alps but this was a superb ride to keep his yellow jersey into an eighth day.
“We were expecting that from Van Avermaet, he did that last time he had the jersey in 2016,” said Thomas, who started the day 43 seconds down.
“It would have been nice to take the yellow jersey but it’s the Tour de France – it doesn’t come easily and doesn’t come just because you want it.”
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