Teams & Riders Julian Alaphilippe Discussion Thread

[MJR]

I did too, but at the same time realized "oh no, you've just launched Pog to another solo win."

Haha, I thought the same thing. I'm happy to have seen it turn out differently.

 

[dazaau]

Loulou will win Fleche trust me bro

No joke Pog was struggling to hold the wheel 😂 Fleche for the win!

 

[RedheadDane]

But it's a bit like watching a French rider sprinting for the win in the 2022 AGR and then just assuming it was Alaphilippe for weeks afterwards.

The keyword here being "watching". I am in fact able to tell Alaphilippe apart from other French riders, including Cosnefroy - why would people get Alaphilippe and Cosnefroy confused anyway? - In fact, I can even tell Alaphilippe and Burgaudeau apart! The fact that they ride for different teams help...

With the Team Pursuit World Championships, I would merely have read "Denmark wins title" (probably in Danish), without really paying attention to exactly who was riding.

 

[Filippo_3467]

Alaphilippe seems to be now fully in the Voeckler-phase of his career where a good race dosen't mean actually getting a good placing out of it but getting some high quality camera time to pull some near death faces before getting dropped like a stone. The Tour should be entertaining.

I'm sure he could have competed for a Top 10 here if he would be interested in that...

 

[Sciatic]

Alaphilippe seems to be now fully in the Voeckler-phase of his career where a good race dosen't mean actually getting a good placing out of it but getting some high quality camera time to pull some near death faces before getting dropped like a stone. The Tour should be entertaining.

I'm sure he could have competed for a Top 10 here if he would be interested in that...

The difference being that Voeckler was always in the "Voeckler stage" throughout his career, but we're still not quite used to that with Ala.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Alaphilippe just seems to be in the enigma phase of his career, one day he does a 100k two-man break like in the Giro last year and then he‘s in the Grupetto again. He looked good on the Cipressa this year, then had one competitive day in Itzulia, then does a suicide move in Amstel. You just don‘t know what he‘s up to these days.

 

[topcat]

Alaphilippe will go from the bottom of the Mur today and absolutely kill it.
Source: trust me mou

 

[Panda Claws]

I need Patrick to start haunting this thread.

 

[EllaChimp]

I don't know why LouLou is so inconsistent these days but he's one of my favourite riders and I'm always rooting for him to do well!

Here's a photo I took of him in Lido Di Camaiore last year, before the start of the stage one ITT at Tirreno-Adriatico. He's a great guy.

https://imgur.com/YSvvxeJ

View: https://imgur.com/YSvvxeJ

 

[veganrob]

Three years of injuries will do that.

 

[Skalman]

He is cooking, Wait for him to unleash fully 8/7

 

[Hugh Januss]

He is cooking, Wait for him to unleash fully 8/7

He rides like a crackhead. When he was young it didn't bite him in the ass as much but now he would really benefit from learning a little self control. Cross him with Roglic and you might just have the perfect bike racer.

 

[noob]

I want him to podium for sure. I agree his tactics is bad, but the soul is real so I'm eating it all up 😍

 

[Cookster15]

He rides like a crackhead. When he was young it didn't bite him in the ass as much but now he would really benefit from learning a little self control. Cross him with Roglic and you might just have the perfect bike racer.

Harsh. Unlike Roglic, I really don't think JA is a genuine GC contender.

JA is a two-time UCI World Road Champion. If he didn't have self control he would never have held the yellow jersey in the 2019 Tour.

Cycling is a balance of physical superiority and taking risks. If JA didn't take risks he wouldn't win so much but then we wouldn't have an excuse to call him names.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

JA is a two-time UCI World Road Champion. If he didn't have self control he would never have held the yellow jersey in the 2019 Tour.

Cycling is a balance of physical superiority and taking risks. If JA didn't take risks he wouldn't win so much but then we wouldn't have an excuse to call him names.

It about knowing when to uleash yourself and when to play it a bit more passive. In the Tour 2019 he unleashed himself in the right spots in the first half of the race, then he controlled himself good on Tourmalet. Then after that it seemed like he lost a bit of control, for example on Prat D'Albis he went way to fast early and blew up. I think he couldve gone half a minute faster (Thomas/Kruijswijk group) with better pacing.

Much the same was with Voeckler in 2011, he totally lost the self control on Galibier trying to follow Contador and Schleck early on the Alpe dHuez stage. In hinsight absurd tactic, that should have been avoided.

PS! Always great to see Ala in form, hope he can win a Tour stage.

 

[tobydawq]

Great to see him at this level.

But he doesn't have the punch he used to. In stage 2, for example, he was on the wheels of Simmons and Albanese but had to give up before the sprint which has happened a lot this year. But impressive climbing legs! Likely the best he has ever had apart from the 2019 Tour (of course his numbers would be higher these days, but relatively speaking).

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

He is cooking, Wait for him to unleash fully 8/7

Well he has done pretty well two days ahead of your schedule.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Julian Alberto Faria da Gerrans is alive.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

One of the greatest of the modern era.. Amazing ride

 

[CyclistAbi]

Welcome back.

 

[Izzyeviel]

chapeau. Great to see

 

[11-34]

A-la-philip-pe !!!

 

[Tonton]

Welcome back.

Hopefully, but I don't want to get carried away. Big race, big performance, big win, big champion. Having been in so many important races, having won so many, he always had a great cycling IQ, so in the end it comes down to the form of the day, and if it's there, Julian will always be dangerous. It happened. It can happen again on the biggest stage...hopefully.

 

[Skalman]

Chapeau LouLou! Worth waiting for...

 

[Sciatic]

Julian Alberto Faria da Gerrans is alive.

Ala gets a complete pass on this one because he’s done way too much work in breakaway groups throughout his career, the opposite of Gerrans who made a career out of it.