Teams & Riders Julian Alaphilippe Discussion Thread

[May0maniac]

What a rider, he's just amazing.

 

[Netserk]

It'll be interesting to see how much he'll have left for the autumn next year after a (hopefully) full season of racing.

 

[staubsauger]

Eventually this is a completely wasted year due to injury for Alaphilippe! Let's not forget that. A year where he still impressed big time at P-N, won a stage at the Vuelta, nearly became world champion and expressed himself pretty well at the Italian fall classics. If that's the outcome of a bad year potentially there's so much more to come if he's in peak shape!

 

[Blanco]

It's time for a big win next year...

 

[can3478]

Congrats!

Glad to hear that De Plus didn't sustain any serious injuries. At a young age of 22, he's so supportive of Alaphilippe when he just came back on the bike after his knee surgery, watch the last 20 seconds of this video:
https://twitter.com/NikiTerpstra/status/883386922747523072


Julian's next race - Tour of Guangxi.

 

[Urbi27]

In fact I think be could win in China. The route will suits him, The queation is about the motivation.

 

[Rollthedice]

Very good race by Julien, he's a spectacular rider and a first big win will certainly come soon.

 

[can3478]

BestCycling made a new video for Julian Alaphiippe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYU9IElty8

 

[can3478]

As Alaphilippe getting ready to race Tour of Guangxi, here is a fun video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaVvIMuBEBp/?hl=en&taken-by=quickstep_team

& @alafpolak - share your smile around the world

Good luck to QS team.

 

[can3478]

Since there is no tv coverage of Tour of Guangxi and we don't have a thread for it on this forum, here is GoPro highlights of stage 1, won by Fernando Gaviria.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuAPfu8JqHo

 

[Alexandre B.]

Alafpolak winning on Plateau de Glières back in 2013.

 

[Tonton]

Re: Julian Alaphilippe

...from the other side.

Nice pic.

 

[El Pistolero]

Hopefully he or Nibali can put an end to Valverde's boring reign in the Ardennes classics next year.

 

[can3478]

Alaphilippe finished 4th today behind Wellens, Mollema and Roche. He won the white jersey!

https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/921998097655373824

 

[can3478]

From FloBIKES: Tour of Guangxi - Full stage 4 highlights(beautiful scenery)
https://www.flobikes.com/video/6020411-full-stage-4-highlights-from-tour-of-guangxi

Guys & gals altogether on the podium at the end of Tour of Guangxi. Watch Gaviria and Oss rushing podium girls to hand them the champagne...
https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/922765520746594304

 

[PanVersi]

Re:

Hopefully he or Nibali can put an end to Valverde's boring reign in the Ardennes classics next year.

You forgot about Kwiatkowski and Teuns.

 

[Akuryo]

Kwiatkowski vs Alaphilippe should be a nice battle for years to come. I really like both of them and their style of racing. Especially Kwiatkowski who often does not seem to be the strongest but manages to outfox his opponents with attacks at key moments. Those "race smarts" are the difference right now in my opinion. Alaphilippe is a great rider but makes mistakes when it comes to the moment of his accelerations.

 

[can3478]

Found this tweet(March),

https://twitter.com/francetvsport/status/841174691234619392

which had a short video giving a brief account of Alaphilippe progression prior to wearing the leader’s yellow jersey at Paris-Nice.
- In 2010, he came 2nd at junior cyclocross world championship.
- But he almost stopped cycling the same year, because of a knee injury.
- The young rider bounced back with Armee de Terre team, he won French U23 Cyclocross champion for 2 years.
- (While at Etixx-IHNED.cz, he won on the Plateau des Gilieres at the 2013 Tour de l’Avenir.)
- In 2015, he finished 2nd at La Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
- In 2016, he won the Amgen Tour of California.
- Some weeks later, he finished 6th and was the best young rider at Dauphine.
- The performance earned his first participation at Tour de France.
- This year at Paris-Nice, the vice champion of Europe won an ITT stage and wore the yellow jersey for 3 days.

 

[can3478]

Despite a knee injury which forced Julian Alaphilippe to miss 3 objectives of the season – Ardennes Classics, Amgen Tour of California and Tour de France, he made it to Felix Lowe at Eurosport cycling, top 10 riders of 2017.

https://au.eurosport.com/cycling/blazin-saddles-best-riders-teams-and-races-of-the-2017-season_sto6456748/story.shtml

8. Julian Alaphilippe
Alaphilippe's victory ahead of Alberto Contador in the uphill time trial on Mont Brouilly in Paris-Nice saw Tour director Christian Prudhomme proclaim "the birth of a champion". 10 days later, that rising star almost burned the brightest in a thrilling conclusion to Milan-Sanremo: when Peter Sagan attacked on the Poggio, the French youngster (riding his maiden edition of La Primavera aged 24) and Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski were the only riders capable of following – prompting a three-way sprint on the via Roma that saw the Pole pip Sagan and Alaphilippe to glory.
Later in the season, the Quick-Step rider won a stage on the Vuelta before almost pulling off the winning move in the World Championships road race in Bergen. He capped a fine season with second place in Il Lombardia. What a rider he is becoming.


Julian Alaphilippe first race of 2018 season - Colombia Oro y Paz(Feb 6-11)

 

[Valv.Piti]

I dont agree with that at all. He had a fine season taking the injuries into consideration, but not more than that. I really hope he can be injury free, him and Gaviria have the potential to go head to head with GVA, Sagan and Valverde, but also come up big in the GTs in terms of stage win. QS future is really set if they can do that, but crashes and injuries have been a problem so far....

Big fan of him and his TT win on Brouilly was one of my favourite moments of 2017 looking back at it. That was so damn impressive. Its behind Gilbert's RVV, but on par with displays such as Valverde's win on Lo Port.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

I dont agree with that at all. He had a fine season taking the injuries into consideration, but not more than that. I really hope he can be injury free, him and Gaviria have the potential to go head to head with GVA, Sagan and Valverde, but also come up big in the GTs in terms of stage win. QS future is really set if they can do that, but crashes and injuries have been a problem so far....

Big fan of him and his TT win on Brouilly was one of my favourite moments of 2017 looking back at it. That was so damn impressive. Its behind Gilbert's RVV, but on par with displays such as Valverde's win on Lo Port.

No, I don't think many people will agree with him having had a better season than Froome...

The inclusion of Barguil is also strange but the other eight riders in the list would also be my top eight picks - probably in a different order, though.

Regarding Alaphilippe, he really needs to begin winning. To only have six wins from four seasons with his abilities and skillset is a shockingly small amount.

 

[Velolover2]

Podium in Milano-Sanremo, Liege, Fleche Wallone (x2) and Lombardia. It's only a question of time.

He has potential to be the best one-stage racer. What about Tour of Flanders? Could he be competitive in that race?

 

[Akuryo]

If you can win in the Ardennes, you can win Flanders on the right day in my opinion. It is not like Roubaix where you need a completely different skillset. It is basically a hilly race. Only difference is a few of those hills have cobbles. And you can prepare yourself for these occasions.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

If you can win in the Ardennes, you can win Flanders on the right day in my opinion. It is not like Roubaix where you need a completely different skillset. It is basically a hilly race. Only difference is a few of those hills have cobbles. And you can prepare yourself for these occasions.

This. Flanders has been won by Bugno, Criquielion, Gilbert, Sorensen, Durand, Argentin. All capable cobbles riders no doubt, but certainly better known for their success on punchy climbs.

It’s been said that the difference between Flanders and Roubaix is those Flandrian cobbles are the actual roads that are used by regular traffic and maintained throughout the year by the authorities. The Roubaix cobbles are farm tracks maintained by a bunch of volunteers at weekends.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

If you can win in the Ardennes, you can win Flanders on the right day in my opinion. It is not like Roubaix where you need a completely different skillset. It is basically a hilly race. Only difference is a few of those hills have cobbles. And you can prepare yourself for these occasions.

This. Flanders has been won by Bugno, Criquielion, Gilbert, Sorensen, Durand, Argentin. All capable cobbles riders no doubt, but certainly better known for their success on punchy climbs.

It’s been said that the difference between Flanders and Roubaix is those Flandrian cobbles are the actual roads that are used by regular traffic and maintained throughout the year by the authorities. The Roubaix cobbles are farm tracks maintained by a bunch of volunteers at weekends.

But of these, Gilbert is the only Ardennes guy who won recently and he’s always had a strong sideline in cobbled races. The main cast of RVV always overlaps much more heavily with that of Roubaix than that of LBL. Only a minority of hilly classics riders can compete seriously at it and it remains to be seen if Alaphilippe is one of them. I hope he does win it.