Incredibly motivated, the team set out at a blistering pace, with the newly crowned Colombian national time trial champion, Dani Martinez, showing what his legs are made of, nearly blowing the team apart. “A couple of times I was yelling at Dani to slow down as loud as I could yell, literally I was screaming for him to slow down. I could hear Nate behind Taylor and we were all screaming at him to slow down, but he couldn’t hear us because of the noise from the crowd,” Alex Howes said. “He’s just super strong,” Taylor Phinney added of Martínez. “I told him [Dani] to pull longer and less intense to keep it really regular.”

“This win is of the entire team, they did an impressive job and I am really grateful for their work. We raced for the stage, as the GC wasn’t on our radar today. I focused on my sprint and I am happy of how things unfolded at the end of the day. This victory is the best way to celebrate my two-year contract extension with the team”

Julian didn’t panic and rode his own pace, always dangling around 15 seconds behind the newly-formed duo. Together with Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), the 26-year-old Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider began to make up ground on the fast descent and came back to the duo inside the last kilometer. Despite leading out the sprint, Alaphilippe remained cool as a cucumber and expertly navigated through the final corners, before kicking out with 200 meters to go, on a short uphill drag.

As the confetti rained down, Julian triumphantly punched the air to celebrate another victory which confirmed his good early-season form, that so far has netted three wins and three other podiums in less than two weeks of racing.

Just like last year, his victory at the Tour Colombia took Alaphilippe to the top of the general classification, where teammate Bob Jungels sits in fifth place, but despite having the orange jersey on his shoulders, the Frenchman insisted the overall isn’t a priority: “Today, I won with my head and heart after a great effort and I want to enjoy this beautiful moment. I have a few seconds over the next riders in the standings, but I’m not thinking of this now. We’ll see tomorrow what the race will bring and how things will unfold.”

“We knew a tough stage was in store today, but nevertheless, we took the responsibility and I am proud of how the boys controlled the breakaway. The climb was hard and I knew it was going to be difficult against all the Colombian riders, but I did everything that I could and I have no regrets. I am leaving with a stage win and the points jersey after what has been an unbelievable week for our team and I am now looking forward to recovering before my next goals of the season”, concluded Julian, whose next appointment will be Strade Bianche.