Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) stormed back to action in a big way with a win on stage 1 of the Tour de Wallonie. He surged up Mur de Huy to take the victory ahead of Alex Aranburu (Movistar) with Robert Stannard (Alpecin-Deceuninck) trailing in third.
In the final 3km Lotto Soudal and Bora-Hansgrohe took to the front on the flat stretch of road in Huy. The final 700 metres on Mur de Huy kicked up with a pitch of 15% near the line and were the launching pad for the world champion.
It was the first stage race for Alaphilippe since April when he suffered injuries from a crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Frenchman rode the French national championships, finishing 13th in the road race, but was not fit enough to take his place in QuickStep-AlphaVinyl’s team for the Tour de France.
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