Jungels on top of Colombia GC, but for how long?

Bob Jungels arrived in Colombia at the end of January for an altitude training block topped off with the Tour Colombia 2.1 stage race. The general classification ambitions for him and his Deceuninck-QuickStep team were never very high, with a roster built around leading out sprinter Alvaro Hodeg being the main focus of the opening stages.

Now after four of six stages in the books, the Luxembourg champion has a stage win and the overall lead. Jungels seized the opportunity Friday during a circuit race in Medellin, outsprinting the climber-heavy field after most of the races' top pure sprinters faded over the course of a difficult day.

"It wasn't a stage that I had particularly planned or looked at because it was basically a so-called sprinter stage," Jungels said. "But these things do not exist in Colombia, I think."

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After the bunch reeled in the day's breakaway with 10km to go, the race turned into complete chaos without any organised sprint trains taking control. Attacks flew up the road constantly until Jungels attacked the final kilometre and opened up enough of a gap to hold off the charge from Israel Cycling Academy's Mihkel Raim. His teammate Julian Alaphilippe finished third.

"It's been a very tough day, it's been warm," Jungels said in the post-stage press conference. "There was a little less altitude than before, but the climb was tough, and after three laps we knew that our sprinters were fully out of the game. The end scenario was almost the same as yesterday.

"I was talking with Julian [Alaphilippe], and he just said, 'Yeah, go for yourself.' He tried on the climb. Yesterday I tried to pull the sprint for him. Today I tried it on my own and I succeeded, and I'm glad that it happened like this."

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