{"id":9886,"date":"2025-07-21T03:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/9886\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T03:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:12:09","slug":"julian-alaphilippe-cardboard-sign-video-stage-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/9886\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Alaphilippe, cardboard sign video, stage 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a bizarre moment on the slopes of the Col du\u202fTourmalet, a cyclist snatched a cardboard sign from a stunned fan for an unusual use during Stage 14 of the Tour de France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the brutal conditions on the challenging climb of the Tourmalet, Tudor Pro Cycling Team cyclist Julian Alaphilippe decided to take action.<\/p>\n

Grabbing the cardboard sign, Alaphilippe used it as insulation to keep warm.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Hasler’s fiery spray caught on camera after ‘dumb’ loss<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gagai’s epic reaction to Bunker howler after Gus blow-up<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Nothing left’: Tszyu’s career ‘in doubt’ after brutal loss<\/a><\/p>\n

The spectator, who had written words of encouragement for Alaphilippe’s rival, Wout van Aert, reached out to the Frenchman, but Alaphilippe had one plan in mind.<\/p>\n

Grabbing on, the cardboard tore in half as he raced down the road.<\/p>\n

\"Julian<\/p>\n

Julian Alaphilippe grabs a fan’s sign clean out of their hands. \u00a0X<\/p>\n

Alaphilippe was then seen balancing the cardboard across his aero bars before ripping it into two smaller pieces and tossing away the scraps.<\/p>\n

He then unzipped his jersey, before stuffing the sign inside in a last-ditch attempt to stay warm.<\/p>\n

The conditions for the stage on Sunday (AEST) were a stark change from previous days of sunshine, with rain, strong wind, and plummeting temperatures because of the altitude in the French Pyrenees.<\/p>\n

Ex-teammate of Alaphilippe and former stage winner Zdenek Stybar said: “Julian is really suffering from the cold”.<\/p>\n

The instinctive behaviour helped Alaphilippe preserve his body temperature.<\/p>\n

After about 30km, and when the worst of the weather had passed, Alaphilippe waved down the camera motorbike, and appeared to give a roadside apology before handing over the soggy remains of the sign.<\/p>\n

Alaphilippe later apologised to the fan in person before gifting them a special memento.<\/p>\n

“In the end, the story ended well. I apologised to the woman [from] whom I took it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I gave her a bib, and she took a picture with Wout. In the end, thanks to this, she had a better time compared to what she would have experienced at the top of the Tourmalet.”<\/p>\n

\"Wout<\/p>\n

Wout Van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe pose with the fan whose sign Alaphilippe stole during stage 14. \u00a0@propelotontr via X<\/p>\n

Alaphilippe ultimately finished the stage in 50th place.<\/p>\n

Keeping himself in the headlines, in the following stage, Alaphilippe celebrated at the line after thinking he had won.<\/p>\n

He was, in fact, third behind Tim Wellens of Team UAE and Victor Campenaerts of Team Visma.<\/p>\n

Having been earlier caught up in a big crash, Alaphilippe’s race radio was damaged, meaning he did not know the stage had already been won.<\/p>\n

Sprinting for third place long after Wellens and Campenaerts took line honours, Alaphilippe pipped van Aert at the line and celebrated accordingly.<\/p>\n

To his embarrassment, he was quickly informed of his error. <\/p>\n

Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG maintains the overall lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a bizarre moment on the slopes of the Col du\u202fTourmalet, a cyclist snatched a cardboard sign from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-9886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}