"When Vingegaard and Pogacar were leading. I didn't understand anything anymore" - Julian Alaphilippe recollects insane breakaway fight

Stage 12 was marked by another extraordinary fight to form a breakaway. Hour and a half of fighting in hilly terrain saw Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in the mix in the breakaway, and Julian Alaphilippe reports the craze throughout those early kilometers.

"It was another tough day, unbelievable, it just didn't stop," Alaphilippe said at the finish line. He didn't manage to achieve a result, a Tour where he has not been at his best but has also spent a lot of energy in moments where it proved unnecessary. Today he made it to the day's breakaway after the difficult start, however he missed the key move, and had to chase back together with Jasper Stuyven for several kilometers. "We rode after it for a long time and I immediately felt that it would come back like a boomerang."

The Frenchman hoped that he would recover and then have his best legs on the climbs that followed, which were not overly difficult, but that was not the case, with him being one of the first riders dropped from the group. "I gave everything. Even if I had been top, it would have been difficult to win," he admits, on what was a difficult day for Soudal - Quick-Step where Fabio Jakobsen abandoned. 

"I am calm headed and not at my best level at the moment. It was a tough ride, in which even Vingegaard and Pogacar were leading. I didn't understand anything anymore," he jokes, talking about the fight which is unlikely to repeat itself throughout this Tour as there will be no more hilly stages where breakaway victories are certain.