Going into the race, Alaphilippe was eyeing off an Italian hat-trick of Strade-Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, and Milan-San Remo victories.
But after Deceuninck-Quick Step finished 37 seconds behind Mitchelton-Scott in the TTT curtain-raiser yesterday, Alaphilippe said he'd be satisfied walking away without the trident now he had this stage win.
“The time trial wasn’t the best way to start the race," he said. "But yesterday was yesterday."
Julian Alaphilippe celebrates his Stage 2 victory over Greg Van Avermaet and Alberto Bettiol at the 2019 Tirreno-Adriatico 2019, Stage 2 (Getty) Source: Velo
"Today, myself and the whole team were very motivated to win the stage. It’s an incredible win.
"If we continue like that, I might still be close to GC by the end. If we don't, I won’t be disappointed considering the nice feeling today’s victory brings.”
While his twin Simon continued Mitchelton-Scott's purple patch with ITT victory in France, Adam Yates did his bit by moving into the race lead.
“It would have been nice for me to win today," Yates said. "But the finish didn’t exactly suit me. There were stronger guys than me but, after tomorrow's stage, there are two stages that I can challenge for time bonuses."
"With no summit finish this year and an individual time trial to finish with, it’s pretty difficult for me to win Tirreno-Adriatico, but I came here to win a stage and do well on GC.
"We’ve been doing pretty well so far and we’ll try to win more.”
Markel Irizar (Trek-Segafredo), Stepan Kurianov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Natnael Berhane (Cofidis), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) and Sebastian Schönberger (Neri Sottoli-Selle Italia) got away early on the 195 kilometre stage from Camaiore to Pomarance, establishing a four minute advantage around 20kms in. Their lead gradually dwindled until the catch was made with 13 kilometres to go.
Stage 3 is an undulating and long 226km stage from Pomarance to Foligno.
