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Teams & Riders Julian Alaphilippe Discussion Thread

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Congratulations to JA for winning the poll.

I agree with the top 3 in the Velo d'Or poll, but I think the order is more debatable. In my opinion, Roglic was ultimately the more succesful rider this season if you take away the hype of TDF. But it can be debated that JA was more spectacular. Even if, in hindsight, I also think that his spring season has become a little bit overrated, his ride in the Tour is probably the most spectacular multi-day-performance I have seen this year.

MvdP in 4th place must reflect that non-results-related contextual/narrative factors weigh higher than results, because otherwise there is no way that he, MvdP, had a better season on the road than Jakob Fuglsang and a few other riders.
 
If he follows his normal way of doing things he may be too tired to win either the Olympics or Worlds. Also not fully convinced he can climb well enough to win either one.
Considering that he has to have a full peak for the Tour because he's French I think we should wait until he has won everything he wants to win in the spring to see him go for a lesser spring peak and a bigger fall one. Anyway he's still young enough to wait, Bettini for example shifted from spring and summer full peaks to spring and fall full peaks only when he was 31 and still won two WC, two Lombardia, five stages at the Vuelta and a Züri Metzgete (IMHO his most impressive win, look at the gaps...) in four years.
 
Considering that he has to have a full peak for the Tour because he's French I think we should wait until he has won everything he wants to win in the spring to see him go for a lesser spring peak and a bigger fall one. Anyway he's still young enough to wait, Bettini for example shifted from spring and summer full peaks to spring and fall full peaks only when he was 31 and still won two WC, two Lombardia, five stages at the Vuelta and a Züri Metzgete (IMHO his most impressive win, look at the gaps...) in four years.

As I said it depends on if he follows his normal way of doing things. With him, the way he races he could be one that burns out at a younger age as well. We will see.
 
Congratulations to JA for winning the poll.

I agree with the top 3 in the Velo d'Or poll, but I think the order is more debatable. In my opinion, Roglic was ultimately the more succesful rider this season if you take away the hype of TDF. But it can be debated that JA was more spectacular. Even if, in hindsight, I also think that his spring season has become a little bit overrated, his ride in the Tour is probably the most spectacular multi-day-performance I have seen this year.

MvdP in 4th place must reflect that non-results-related contextual/narrative factors weigh higher than results, because otherwise there is no way that he, MvdP, had a better season on the road than Jakob Fuglsang and a few other riders.
Spring season overrated...MSR, Strade, FW, I think that you're getting a little carried away. Plus stage wins in major races...yes, his TdF was huge. I wouldn't hold that against him. He beat Bernal on the Tourmalet...Yhomas in the ITT.

MVP? The king of Cyclo-Cross...the AGR final was something unforgettable. I can see him mentined.

Roglic? Great year. He had to be in the discussion.

Fuglsang? Same thing but in the GTs, when it mattered, he was nowhere to be found. That hurt him.
 
MVDP could be a problem for him in 2020. If there is a person that can outkick, outpace AND outsprint Julian, it's him. At least when it's not super hilly.
The 3 races they lined up together MvdP beat him in the sprint twice, was far superior in the worlds until his untimely hunger knock. For sure it's gonna be a problem.

As to the hilly part. We don't know. In Arctic MvdP got a bit sick. I'd like to see what he could've done on that 3km climb if fit. In MTB he's done super hilly stuff and beat the 12kg lighter Nino Schurter.. Unfortunately we won't know next year either. I don't think he has any of the ardennes classics on the program.

For now I think Ala is still better on the really hilly stuff as FW / LBL and would comfortably drop him. But I'd like to see it in action..
 
MVDP could be a problem for him in 2020. If there is a person that can outkick, outpace AND outsprint Julian, it's him. At least when it's not super hilly.


Both riders will be treated very differently next year. MVDP will get the full Sagan, meaning he'll be dragging everyone around in the final 50k of any race he does. Likewise with Alaphilippe, although to a less extent, because he's a little craftier than MVDP, who at this point is winning largely on sheer power.
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They are somewhat different riders whose strengths intersect on certain courses. No way VDP could win a TDF mountain stage, and it's unlikely that JA could win a bunch sprint or even reduced sprint, though it's possible.
 
Congratulations to Julian Alaphilippe for winning Velo d'or prize.


It would be hard to claim Alaphilippe didn't deserve it.

P.S. I am personally a fan of Roglič, and if Roglič would have won Velo d'or prize this year, it would be hard to claim, Roglič didn't deserve it. One GT win, one GT podium, a few weekly and daily races wins. Most importantly, wherever Roglič raced in this year, he was considered a favorite, by other favorites, hard to overlook that.
 
Congrats to Ala for winning the Velo d'Or!
It obviously seems like panache/perception has played an important part in the voting, because there is no way Alaphilppe had a better season than Roglic results-wise. I'd also put Bernal ahead of Ala. Van der Poel voted ahead of Fuglsang really underscores that point.
 
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Spring season overrated...MSR, Strade, FW, I think that you're getting a little carried away. Plus stage wins in major races...yes, his TdF was huge. I wouldn't hold that against him. He beat Bernal on the Tourmalet...Yhomas in the ITT.

MVP? The king of Cyclo-Cross...the AGR final was something unforgettable. I can see him mentined.

Roglic? Great year. He had to be in the discussion.

Fuglsang? Same thing but in the GTs, when it mattered, he was nowhere to be found. That hurt him.
No, I am not getting carried away...

JAs spring season was very very good. I also agree that his performance in the Tour was great and really something special. But while I think he was the stand-out rider of the Tour, I do not think he was the definitive rider of the spring. In my opinion (and supported by the quantitative measures available), Roglic and Fuglsang had equally impressive spring seasons. Obviously Fuglsang had a disappointing Tour, although a decent late season, while Roglic carried on the greatness throughout September/October. I find it totally reasonable that Alaphilippe has won the poll, but I think Roglic had a marginally better year if pure results - and not the manner in which the results were obtained - was the primary metric at play in the poll. But you can ofcourse argue that then, in that case, we would not want a poll in the first place, because rankings would give the answer.

That said, MvdP's 2019 palmares is rather thin, if you compare it with those of the above mentioned rider, including Bernal. This clearly illustrates that single performances weighs highly in the poll (Gilbert and Mads P are also examples of this). While I think that both the objective results and the individual performances are important in deciding the greatness of any rider's season, I do think that perhaps it has been skewed too much in favour of individual performances in MvdPs case (not that he does not belong on the list, but a 4th place is too high in my opinion). Sorry for going off-topic.
 
Alaphillippe the most exciting rider of the season. Worthy winner in my book. 2nd and 3rd could go either way. In my opinion Bernal had a good season but something was lacking from his year.
Bernal won Paris-Nice, Suisse and the Tour, and was still competitive at Lombardia. If anything was lacking from his year it was the period he spent injured that forced him to miss the Giro. Any other year, a 22 year old winning those 3 races should be on the cover of Time, never mind Velo.
 
Bernal won Paris-Nice, Suisse and the Tour, and was still competitive at Lombardia. If anything was lacking from his year it was the period he spent injured that forced him to miss the Giro. Any other year, a 22 year old winning those 3 races should be on the cover of Time, never mind Velo.

Different strokes for different folks. I dunno. I cant recall any exciting stage win or etc. from Roglic or Bernal. I missed the last part of the season inclunding Vuelta and Lombardia.
 
Apparently Alaphilippe is considering racing Rhonde in 2020.

Found a link for the source for this:

Not considering. He's going.
 
The 3 races they lined up together MvdP beat him in the sprint twice, was far superior in the worlds until his untimely hunger knock. For sure it's gonna be a problem.

As to the hilly part. We don't know. In Arctic MvdP got a bit sick. I'd like to see what he could've done on that 3km climb if fit. In MTB he's done super hilly stuff and beat the 12kg lighter Nino Schurter.. Unfortunately we won't know next year either. I don't think he has any of the ardennes classics on the program.

For now I think Ala is still better on the really hilly stuff as FW / LBL and would comfortably drop him. But I'd like to see it in action..
I'm not convinced. Road is different from off-road. I think he has a natural limit when it comes to climbing. He is much more of a sprinter than Julian.

In Amstel, he tried to attack early but lost a bit of steam after the climb. His abilities as a rouleur on the flat narrow roads and the tactical disagreements between Ala and the Bird secured him the victory.

And Liege is another animal. Especially if it is raced like last year. It was a climber's top 10 with Schachmann being the only exception. In Fleche, a top 10 is possible but I doubt he will have the same acceleration after after a kilometer of double digit gradients. Ala has a clear advantage.

In Sanremo, Flanders (and other Flemish classics) and even Strade, I do favor him over Alaphilippe however. Even if Julian is the reigning champion.
 
I'm just saying if you watch some of his junior/u23 results, there is some evident climbing potential in MvdP as well. Nowhere near GT level what Alaph can do, but still
I think we agree that he isn't a climber but the point is that the definition of a puncheur is quite ambiguous. Having a nice uphill sprint doesn't mean that you can do well in all hilly races.

Redoute, Faucons, Huy, Mutigny, San Luca. Those are hills for the climbers, not Northern classics riders.
 

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