Teams & Riders Julian Alaphilippe Discussion Thread

[Akuryo]

Re: Re:

He could've just stayed with Thomas and Kruijswijk, not blow himself up and then not get dropped from that group and he'd have looked a lot better yesterday.

Obviously he's not the best climber in the race, and obviously he's likely on the downhill, but I'm not sure it's quite that bad yet.

Perhaps he could have, but that's not his style. And I hope he never changes that! We have enough defensive riders already. He tried, he blew himself up and lost some time but managed to limit his losses on pure willpower.

I don't think that will be good enough in the Alps though, and I'm afraid he'll crack completely. As soon as he's out of yellow (perhaps Galibier, else Iseran) motivation will drop and fatigue will skyrocket.

Between 6th and 10 in GC is my guess as well. Hope I'm wrong though

I don't think it was wrong to try to go with Pinot / Bernal but, having been dropped from that group, I didn't agree with him immediately working on the front of the Thomas group. Are Thomas/Poels and Kruiswijk going to stop riding if he sits on ? I don't think so with Pinot, Bernal and Buchman up the road. That mistake cost him some time but overall he was quite a bit better than Thomas in the Pyrenees.

The climbs in the Alps are more difficult for him but the descents are a lot better for him and nobody is talking much about that

He will not able to take advantage of the descents now that he's sitting in the group of favorites.

Nibali and Froome have won stages in the past with great descending. Why not Alaphilippe?

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

He could've just stayed with Thomas and Kruijswijk, not blow himself up and then not get dropped from that group and he'd have looked a lot better yesterday.

Obviously he's not the best climber in the race, and obviously he's likely on the downhill, but I'm not sure it's quite that bad yet.

Perhaps he could have, but that's not his style. And I hope he never changes that! We have enough defensive riders already. He tried, he blew himself up and lost some time but managed to limit his losses on pure willpower.

I don't think that will be good enough in the Alps though, and I'm afraid he'll crack completely. As soon as he's out of yellow (perhaps Galibier, else Iseran) motivation will drop and fatigue will skyrocket.

Between 6th and 10 in GC is my guess as well. Hope I'm wrong though

I don't think it was wrong to try to go with Pinot / Bernal but, having been dropped from that group, I didn't agree with him immediately working on the front of the Thomas group. Are Thomas/Poels and Kruiswijk going to stop riding if he sits on ? I don't think so with Pinot, Bernal and Buchman up the road. That mistake cost him some time but overall he was quite a bit better than Thomas in the Pyrenees.

The climbs in the Alps are more difficult for him but the descents are a lot better for him and nobody is talking much about that

He will not able to take advantage of the descents now that he's sitting in the group of favorites.

Nibali and Froome have won stages in the past with great descending. Why not Alaphilippe?

It won’t be Quintana sitting in his wheel looking for a bottle and someone else to close the gap, and there won’t be a snowdrift to clip Kruiswijk. And there’s only one downhill finish of the 3 mountain stages remaining.

 

[can3478]

Responding to Akuryo post
^ True! I think it's possible but maybe not wise to do so because he's exhausted mentally and physically in this 3rd week, any mistake on a fast downhill can have devastating result.

 

[lartiste]

The biggest problem for him as not only lack of support, but in fact no support latter in the stage and even he has to go for bottles by his own.

It is very difficult to attack even downhill without any support at all. Although Sunweb lacks support for TD, but still it was much better GT team than DQ... . Very difficult for him to handle the situation.

 

[Leinster]

If Mas is over his gastrointestinal problems by Thursday, he will have support.

If not, he’s in biiiiig trouble.

 

[jmdirt]

I've been on the edge of the grid for a week (only quick email, and TdF checks). Can JA do it?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I don't see him finishing top 10. I see a big implosion incoming.

 

[lartiste]

Since 2012 always won cyclist who was first at the begining of third week.

ALLEZ!

 

[IndianCyclist]

if the ketonic magic works he might stay in yellow

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Since 2012 always won cyclist who was first at the begining of third week.

ALLEZ!

And in 2011 the rider who wore yellow at this point was a french stagehunter who got the lead early when nobody expected him to be dangerous just for him to perform way better than expected in the Pyrenees and hold on to yellow...

 

[can3478]

Re: Re:

^^
I don't see why his chances would be worse today than yesterday. He defended well in a difficult stage he didn't crack, and he still has a decentish advantage.

One more day gone.

On the Tourmalet he looked like one of the best climbers, but that took a lot out of him. On Sunday he lost over a minute in 6 km. He's beginning to crack, fatigue is creeping in, which is logical for someone who did't prepare to ride for the GC over three weeks. In the Alps he will be a sitting duck. He'll probably finish between 4th and 7th in Paris.

in his blog, Fuglsang said that he met Alaphilippe during his recon of the Alpine stages before the Tour (and was wondering why a KOM contender would do a recon) - and he also visited the time trial course before the race. I'd say, he had the gc in his mind going into the race.

What a weird conclusion. Why wouldn't a KOM contender do recons of mountain stages...
Dries Devenyns, who did the recons with Alaphilippe, said they were targeting stage wins. And doing recons for that.

Alaphilippe goes into TdF targeting stage wins. He did recon 4/5 stages, maybe more with DQT staff. He did the same for last year tour as well with Jungels.

At the team presentation, he said that there are a few stages that favorite him in the first week and he may have the yellow jersey and he’s not riding for GC.

For those who are surprised that he won ITT on stage 13, that was one of the stage he targeted for stage win and did the recon back in May. The course suits him to a T, small winding country road, very hilly and ends with a little Mur de Huy near the finish line. He couldn’t even design a better route himself. Of course everyone was focussing on Wout and Thomas and ignoring the fact that Alaphillipe won a couple of ITT in the past. He’s kind of opposite to WC Tony Martin who excels in straight and flat route.

He did recon a couple of stages in the Alps. Now that he has the yellow jersey, he will not be able to go in the break to go for stage win there.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

I don't see him finishing top 10. I see a big implosion incoming.

I hope he has some fumes in the tank and can avoid an implosion to battle this week.

I like this story because he had a great spring and now a great July. That's not something we see much (or at all) in modern pro cycling.

 

[Carols]

ATTN MOD: Can we please rename this the Julian Alaphillipe Discussion Thread? When opening from 'View New Posts' I often end up in the evil place as the threads have the same name. Yes I know I can look closely to see which sub forum it is in but these old eyes sometimes miss that and I think I'm in Hell .

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

ATTN MOD: Can we please rename this the Julian Alaphillipe Discussion Thread? When opening from 'View New Posts' I often end up in the evil place as the threads have the same name. Yes I know I can look closely to see which sub forum it is in but these old eyes sometimes miss that and I think I'm in Hell .

Does a thread have to have the word 'thread' at the end? :lol:

 

[Carols]

MODS: Thank You!

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

ATTN MOD: Can we please rename this the Julian Alaphillipe Discussion Thread? When opening from 'View New Posts' I often end up in the evil place as the threads have the same name. Yes I know I can look closely to see which sub forum it is in but these old eyes sometimes miss that and I think I'm in Hell .

What was it called before?

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

ATTN MOD: Can we please rename this the Julian Alaphillipe Discussion Thread? When opening from 'View New Posts' I often end up in the evil place as the threads have the same name. Yes I know I can look closely to see which sub forum it is in but these old eyes sometimes miss that and I think I'm in Hell .

What was it called before?

Julian Alaphilippe

(Why do I have to write Alap on my phone before it suggests Alaphilippe? Not good enough!)

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

I don't see him finishing top 10. I see a big implosion incoming.

Don't see him leaving top 5. Others will crack as well and Alaf will try to make the most out of it now. Even when he loses yellow he'll try to test himself to see what he can do.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

Since 2012 always won cyclist who was first at the begining of third week.

ALLEZ!

And in 2011 the rider who wore yellow at this point was a french stagehunter who got the lead early when nobody expected him to be dangerous just for him to perform way better than expected in the Pyrenees and hold on to yellow...

Without his tactical mistake to follow Contador & Schleck on Alp d'Huez and his steering error before, Voeckler actually might've won that Tour de France!

 

[dacooley]

Re:

I don't see him finishing top 10. I see a big implosion incoming.

I wouldn't rule out the scenario of alaphilippe having already overcome his own most crisis stage in the tour. that would be truly fantastic for the whole spectacle in the alps.

It won’t be Quintana sitting in his wheel looking for a bottle and someone else to close the gap, and there won’t be a snowdrift to clip Kruiswijk. And there’s only one downhill finish of the 3 mountain stages remaining.

sorry, but it's far from being that obvious. first of all Alaphilippe is a classics rider who is really good at risking extracting minimal advantage. second of all, none of thomas, bernal, pinot, buchmann and kruiswijk are well-experienced in descending full gas. Each of them got accustomed to really safe descending as most of stages with a finish after descents have tendency of ending up with nothing when top favourites agree for a draw on the top of the final climb. so there is a little chancee. but the real question is whether it's worth that with 2 bloody hard mountain stages to come.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not just a great bike rider, but a great guy!

Gives yellow jersey to freezing fan

 

[tobydawq]

Luckily he was not punished for that very stupid push a soigneur gave to him.

What a rider. It was a pity the descent became easy just as he caught the other favourites.

 

[Bardamu]

Lefevere and Bruyneel having a feud with Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld: https://twitter.com/PatLefevere/status/1154467312163889153

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Lefevere and Bruyneel having a feud with Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld: https://twitter.com/PatLefevere/status/1154467312163889153

Bruyneel and and Lefevre are such massive cunts

 

[Vroome.exe]

It's ridiculous people even talk about that push. If they were to give time penalties for that, I'd fly to France right now and give other riders a push so they would be disqualified. It was one touch, a rider can do nothing about that and should not be punished.