Thursday’s double ascent on the L’Alpe d'Huez on the 18th stage of Tour de France inspired the pride of the "Lion from Bucaramanga", Josè Serpa Perez (Lampre-Merida).
 

The Italian team has had an entirely anonymous Tour, with team leader Damiano Cunego being almost invisible. The Colombian climber had good feelings in the stage and he could follow an attack by Valverde (Movistar) in the early part of the second and final climb to L’Alpe d'Huez.
 

11 km remained when Valverde, Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Serpa escaped from the yellow jersey group. The reaction by Froome came swiftly and Serpa was overtaken: he continued in the same group as Kreuziger and Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff).

Only a decrease in the competitiveness in the final part of the climb prevented Serpa from fighting for a place in the top ten: he reached the arrival in 15th position, at 5'18" from the winner Riblon (AG2R).
 

The determined performance on L’Alpe d'Huez elevated Serpa to 21st in the overall classification, 41’05” behind Froome (Sky).