A year after thrilling his home nation for a fortnight on last year's Tour de France, Julian Alaphilippe produced an almost carbon-copy capture of a stage win Sunday to claim the overall leader's yellow jersey again.
On the day's final climb Alaphilippe launched a blistering attack to clinch bonus seconds at the summit before a white-knuckle descent to the finish line in Nice where the second stage victory also gave him bonus seconds.
Delirious with joy at his repeat performance former soldier Alaphilippe began punching towards the sky, as he turned to see just how close behind him the onrushing peloton was to overtaking his escape trio on the Promenade des Anglais finish line.