“I’m so happy with this weekend in Ardèche and Drôme. I had come in search of sensations and I left with a victory on Saturday and a big day of cycling on Sunday. “After his first outing of the year in France on Saturday February 25, Julian Alaphilippe was able to measure how much he was still loved in his country.
From the outside, the double world champion never doubts and the tests seem to slip on him like the rain on his helmet. But like all champions of his rank, he needs to be reassured about his form and his love rating. “I leave relieved”, he explained, signing cans and caps to an audience who waited in the cold to see “Julian”.
“It’s probably the race I like the most”
Reassured after his fortieth professional victory, Alaphilippe nevertheless knows that it is insufficient to trumpet the return of the champion after a very difficult year 2022. On his team’s bus, a “Napoleon” logo with the face of Emperor Bonaparte is drawn. Which indirectly reminds Alaphilippe that it’s time to embark on his Italian campaign. And it will be much denser than his weekend between Ardèche and Drôme. This Saturday March 4, he will start for Strade Bianche in Tuscany before continuing with Tirreno-Adriatico (March 6 to 12) and Milan-San Remo (March 18), where he won in 2019.
On the Strade Bianche, Alaphilippe has known everything. A great victory in 2019, a bitter mano a mano with Mathieu Van der Poel lost to Poulidor’s grandson, two years later, in the pain of lactic acid burns during the final ascent. Then a retirement in 2022 with a spectacular fall. A sun that made the rounds of social networks and which was, in fact, the preamble to his misfortunes of the season.
“But it’s probably the race that I like the most,” explains the Frenchman. There is of course the enthusiasm for the Tour of Flanders which is extraordinary. But the Strade Bianche are a race apart with incredible landscapes and breathtaking roads with its complicated passages on the white gravel sectors which give it its name. And the arrival in Piazza del Campo in Siena is unique. »
Tensions with his boss
Just look at the latest winners to understand that this WorldTour race is now one of the most popular in the peloton. In addition to Alaphilippe and Van der Poel, Wout van Aert then Tadej Pogacar also raised their arms in the center of Siena. In an ideal calendar, Alaphilippe dreams of two races this year. The Tour of Flanders and the Strade Bianche.
Reluctantly, he has discovered a new opponent for a few weeks. He wears the same jersey as him but does not ride. It is his boss, Patrick Lefevere, who does his best to slip him, almost every week, some sharp considerations on a salary-performance ratio that he considers too unbalanced for two years. The Frenchman began to answer him, in French in the text, with his victory in Ardèche. But he can also do it in Italian this week.