Julian Alaphilippe: fighter nature

RF
May 5, 2020
12:00 pm
Complete

The most combative rider of the Tour de France 2019 will attack again this year. In the Belgian team Deceuninck-Quick-Step, Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe still stands for pure attacking spirit and his red back number suits the classics specialist and puncheur, who especially loves the tough races in the Ardennes. For many French riders, Alaphilippe is now their new hope who could save them from the long wait for a new Tour winner from the Grande Nation.

by Henning Heilmann

Alaphilippe wore the yellow jersey for a long time in the 2019 Tour de France. He was able to defend it for six days until Bernal and Thomas caught up with him for the first time. But soon he was riding in yellow again. He wore the yellow jersey for a total of fourteen days, winning two stages of the Tour. It is clear that the nimble Frenchman and Tour fifth of 2019 also wants to attack again in 2020 at the Tour. At the same time, he recently advised in interviews to keep the ball flat. He does not believe he can repeat the successes of 2019. But woe betide if he let go.

How it all began
At the age of 13, Julian Alaphilippe, the son of an orchestra leader from the French provinces, discovered cycling. More and more often, he swapped the drums, which he still enjoys playing today, for his new love, the bicycle. A hyperactive child, Alaphilippe was always on the move, his training program reportedly never enough for him. On the bike, no distance was too far for him, no pavement too hard, no weather too bad. His cousin and coach Franck explained that he had to stop Julian's overzealousness more often. Later in the military, Alaphilippe ended up in a sports company. Here he pursued cyclocross, where he celebrated his first successes. Although Julian's path led back to road cycling, his strengths in undulating terrain and his...