The Tour de France took place without him, but the world didn’t stop turning for Julian Alaphilippe this July. Instead, it has simply brought him to incongruous places.
While the Tour peloton was grinding over the Galibier, Alaphilippe was labouring on the other side of the Alps at a training camp in Livigno. And, as the Tour reaches its denouement this weekend, the world champion is in action, of all places, on the Mur de Huy.
The Tour de Wallonie, which gets underway on Saturday, marks the beginning of the rest of Alaphilippe’s season. After his horrific crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April, the Frenchman endeavoured to return in time for the Tour. Even though he recovered sufficiently to ride the national championships, he was not fit enough to take his place in QuickStep-AlphaVinyl’s team for the Grand Départ a week later.
“It hasn’t been too hard to watch it, I’ve been happy to follow my friends on television after training,” Alaphilippe told reporters ahead on Friday. “But I’ve had plenty to do, between training and my life as a father.”
Alaphilippe will have plenty to do in the weeks ahead, too. His programme from here to the end of the season is an intense one. After the five-day Tour de Wallonie, he lines out at next weekend’s Clàsica San Sebastian before riding the Tour de l’Ain (August 9-11) as a final tune-up ahead of the Vuelta a España. From Spain, he will travel more or less directly to Australia in search of a third successive world title before taking aim at Il Lombardia.
“I didn’t have luck in the early season, because I was ill too, and I wasn’t in the condition I wanted to be in,” Alaphilippe said. “It was a shitty sequence, to be honest, and when you’re in the rainbow jersey and things aren’t going as well as you’d like, it’s viewed as catastrophic.”
Alaphilippe’s season was interrupted by the two broken ribs, broken scapula and punctured lung he sustained in the mass crash before the Col du Rosier at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Those injuries kept him off the bike for almost a month, put him out of the Tour and forced him to redesign his season completely.
“The main objective this week is to enjoy it and get into race rhythm. Obviously, I’d like to attack and get results, because they’re races that suit me. But first, I have to see where I’m at. It will be good to chase results but also to build condition,” said Alaphilippe.
“This is a different programme for me compared to…
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