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Alaphilippe had not claimed a victory at the WorldTour since a stage at the Itzulia-Basque Country in April last year and his since endured a difficult start to the 2023 season, with a poor start at Milan-San Remo followed by a knee injury suffered at the Tour of Flanders.
But the Frenchman's fortunes changed overnight (AEST) as a grippy final sprint was enough to overpower Carapaz and Trek-Segafredo’s Natnael Tesfatsion to claim Stage 2 of the Criterium du Dauphine by over a bike length.
"It was a tough victory to get,” Alaphilippe said after the stage.
"These last few months have been tough, but we’ve worked hard and got back to where we wanted. It’s a relief.
"I was surprised to be up there because first we were working for [teammate] Ethan Vernon, but in the end it was too tough for him, so we could have gone with Florian Sénechal, but with a kilometre to go Florian told me he was already going all out.
"I had good legs, so I went for it instead."
A challenging 2022 campaign for the former double World Champion notably saw a nasty crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
The stage victory at La Chase Dieu proved to be a monkey off the back for the former double World Champion, with his double-armed calming gesture across the finish line indicating his relief.
"Now the win’s in the bag, that’s great news," Alaphilippe said. "I can take the rest of the week a bit more calmly and see what more I can do."
Stage 2 of the eight-day race proved to be not without its drama, as a blistering start to the stage was soon followed by a horrific six-man crash in the opening kilometres which saw Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Steff Cras (Total Energies) and Romain Combaud (Team DSM) all abandon the race.
Jumbo-Visma later confirmed that Kruijswijk had broken his collarbone and suffered a pelvic fracture as a result of the crash, leaving his hopes of Tour de France participation in serious doubt.
Spearheaded by Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), the first break of the day went clear on the category- 3 Col de Toutée, but the seven-man group failed to make much headway with Jumbo-Visma keeping the gap between them and the peloton at a maximum of 90 seconds.
The group was eventually reduced to two by 30 kilometres to go, with Campenaerts and Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) looking to keep break alive on the Côte des Guetes but remained firmly within the peloton's sights.
A brutal acceleration by Jumbo-Visma all but ended the duo’s hopes, with attacks by Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Australian Harrison Sweeny (Lotto-Dstny) on the final descent also quickly snuffed out by Vingegaard's men.
Although Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) remained on top of the overall classification by the end of the stage, the Frenchman looked poised for another win before Carapaz made his move with 700 metres to go.
This was only for the Ecuadorian's attack to quickly be surpassed however, with Alaphilippe shooting past in a perfectly timed sprint to claim a redemptive stage victory.
Watch Stage 3 of the Critérium du Dauphiné tonight on SBS VICELAND from 10:55pm AEST with the sprinters a chance to contest its victor after travelling 191.3 kilometres from Monistrol-sur-Loire to Le Coteau.
