Julian Alaphilippe has delivered a defiant message to his critics and to those who have written off Soudal-QuickStep’s chances against Mathieu van de Poel, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar.
The former double World Champion, like his team, have endured an unusually difficult first segment of the Classics, a speciality they have previously dominated.
Soudal-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefevere has repeated his usual mantra that an
evaluation of their global performance can only be made after Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Remco Evenepoel is on form but the cobbled Classics results have revealed the scale of the team’s crisis.
In a lengthy interview with L’Équipe (opens in new tab), Alaphilippe has made it clear that he is not prepared to throw in the towel and he offered his team some advice on the strategy he feels they should follow in the races to come.
“We’re trying to stay calm,” Alaphilippe said, “it’s normal that we’re disappointed in QuickStep because everybody’s so deeply invested in this period, including the staff.”
“Lots of our riders have really prepared for this segment of the season, and when you see that some of our rivals are dominating like that, of course it’s disappointing.”
“But we have to keep calm, be patient, keep on doing what we’ve always done. Self-pity isn’t any use. And in fact I find these situations can make me feel even more motivated.”
Widely recognised as the rider most likely to pull Soudal-QuickStep out of their current cobbled Classics predicament, Alaphilippe explained to L’Equipe that after feeling on form at Milan-San Remo, he then fell ill on the morning of E3 Saxo Classic.
“I had great legs at San Remo but well – bad timing, bad positioning, some mistakes by the team, and voila,” Alaphilippe told L’Équipe. “I didn’t give up, but I was disappointed to tackle the Poggio like I did. I’ve never been so badly placed as when I started it this year.”
The day before E3 I felt a little tired but I didn’t worry about it. Then on Friday, when I woke up, I had a stomach ache, I felt that it was not right at all. I couldn’t eat anything for breakfast. I had two options: either I didn’t race, or I took the start and did what I could… I tried because I really wanted to race.”
Alaphilippe pointed out that after a 2022 season which went badly almost from start to finish, – with crashes, COVID-19 and injuries all taking their toll to the point where he couldn’t complete a single…
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