The Quick-Step team communicated on Tuesday on the state of health of Julian Alaphilippe and Ilan Van Wilder, its two riders seriously injured after the collective fall of the peloton during Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. If the young Belgian rider, operated on for a broken jaw, has returned home and will not be able to participate in the Tour of Italy (May 6 to 29), the condition of the double French world champion raises more questions. .
“Julian has two broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade and a pneumothorax,” the statement said. The complexity of his condition means that an additional observation period will be required before a course of recovery is decided. He will remain at the Herentals hospital for the time being. »
Well placed, in the first thirty positions of the peloton, launched at more than 70 km / h, Alaphilippe could not do anything to avoid the wave which sent several dozen runners to the mat. Violently thrown against a tree, the Frenchman only came to his senses to realize that he was suffocating, which made him panic under the dumbfounded gaze of Romain Bardet in particular, who then expressed his concern. He was unaware that he had just punctured his lung and that blood was accumulating between it and his chest wall.
“He had a lot of bad luck”
Monday morning, Franck Alaphilippe, his trainer and cousin, called him in video. What he saw and heard reassured him a little. “He was going like an accident, he was still in great pain, but he was not at all down,” says his lifelong coach in the columns of L’Équipe. He got out a couple of nonsense as he usually does, I was happy to see he had already found his joker side. Afterwards, he is seriously injured, it is clear, and he is disgusted. He told me : Within 50cm I avoid the tree, maybe I can even get back on the bike and resume the race. He had a lot of bad luck. »
In the afternoon of Monday, the runner has already undergone additional examinations to identify which of the three injuries will cause the longest recovery period, without any clear answer having been given for the moment. He must undergo new analyzes on Tuesday and therefore remains hospitalized for the moment, as indicated by his team. The three-week course at altitude, in Sierra Nevada, scheduled for May, is already called into question. For his next objectives, the Dauphiné (June 5 to 12) and the Tour de France (July 1 to 24), we will have to wait a little longer.
“In a career, every runner has at least one very complicated year where nothing is going well: Julian is right in the middle of it, adds Franck Alaphilippe. He has always had difficult times, but a dark period like that, never. Since the start of the year, he’s had a cold, bronchitis, the flu, and now he’s fallen three times in less than two months. Every fortnight he’s been upset about something… But from what I’ve seen of him, I feel like this episode is going to make him stronger, give him even more mental toughness, he’s going to be even more determined than before. We can’t give a recovery date yet, but I’m very optimistic for the rest of the season. »