MONT AIGOUAL, France: Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko claimed the biggest success of his career with victory in stage six of the Tour de France as Britain’s Adam Yates retained the leader’s yellow jersey.
Lutsenko left the rest of the breakaway behind on a steep climb with 17km to go and finished alone on Mont Aigoual.
Yates finished in the bunch, with the main favourites content to save their attacks for another day.
“We defended well and I get another day in yellow,” said Yates.
“I got the jersey in a strange situation but hopefully we did it proud.”
France’s Julian Alaphilippe, who lost the yellow jersey to Yates on Wednesday after he was docked 20 seconds for taking a bottle inside the final 20km, sprinted late on to grab one second back in a show of defiance.
Yates, who said before the race he is targeting stage wins instead of the overall title this year, leads Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic by three seconds.
He should keep the jersey after Friday’s (today’s) stage seven, which is one for the sprinters, before facing two tough days in the Pyrenees that lead into Monday’s first rest day.
“Those two stages are going to be really tough but we’ve got a super strong team so I’m looking forward to it,” added Yates.
“I still want to win a stage but it’s hard to throw away time in the lead so I’ll play it day by day and set what happens.”
On Wednesday, Alaphilippe had led Yates by four seconds when the race was finished and looked to have retained the yellow jersey, but television footage showed him taking a bottle from a Deceuninck-Quick Step team support member with 17.8km to go - under the rules of cycling’s world governing body UCI, riders are not allowed to take on food or drink in the final 20km of a race.
It was a bizarre way for the Frenchman to lose the jersey which he had kept for three days after winning the stage two.
“I didn’t realize at all that it was unauthorized,” Alaphilippe said. “But if that’s how it is, then no worries. I’ll pick myself up again and we’ll forget about it.”