Deceuninck – Quick-Step Floors Cycling Team (Italy) - Press Release: Julian Alaphilippe outsprints a stellar field in an electric finale to take first victory of the year.

UCI World Champion Julian Alaphilippe blasted to his maiden victory of the season after delivering a perfectly-timed attack in the closing 200 meters of Thursday’s stage to Chiusdino which saw him become the French rider with the most stage wins at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Deceuninck – Quick-Step delivered a tactical masterclass on stage 2 of the race, sending Giro d’Italia revelation João Almeida on the attack with over 25 kilometers to go, a move which ended up giving more trouble to the peloton then they had expected, after the Portuguese was joined by three other men. Going into the last ten kilometers, their gap stood at 40 seconds, forcing the bunch chase hard in order to shut down that move on the Chiusdino climb.

With two kilometers to go, the chasers could see the leaders, but Almeida continued to make it hard for the bunch, getting out of the saddle and dropping his companions. The 22-year-old gritted his teeth as he rode under the flamme rouge, but the margin began to come down rapidly. Sensing this was the perfect moment to go, Julian Alaphilippe – who up until that point sat on the wheel of Kasper Asgreen and Zdenek Stybar – punched clear 200 meters from the line and held off both Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) as he celebrated his second win in the iconic rainbow jersey.

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/Getty Images.