‘I don’t know where I will be next year’ - Julian Alaphilippe rides back into red zone via the Tour Down Under

Julian Alaphilippe arrived at the Tour Down Under with two prominent veins popping out of his right temple. It wasn’t a stress response to Soudal-Quick-Step team boss Patrick Lefevere’s criticism of his recent results – the Frenchman says he doesn’t care about that – rather an indication of his shape. Alaphilippe’s veins were visible because he was lean. 

Even race director Stuart O’Grady had noted how fit Alaphilippe looked when asked to name a favourite in the lead-up to the men’s WorldTour race. 

Alaphilippe didn’t do anything differently over the European winter. In fact, he stripped his preparations for what could prove to be a defining 2024. At the end of which he’ll be out of contract, with his future in the sport still to be decided.

“I did nothing crazy this winter, just normal training, no big hours, no crazy intensity because the most important [thing] for me was to build a good base and to improve from now to my goals,” Alaphilippe said in Adelaide during a roundtable interview with several media, including Cyclingnews. 

“If I take simple things – like don’t change your training, or change nothing, just keep it simple, like always I did before – I knew it would be a good base to improve, so this is what I did.” 

The two-time former world champion returned to the Tour Down Under for the first time since 2014, the year he turned pro, not to win, but to stay in the “red zone” at the pointy end of the last two hilly stages that suited puncheurs and climbers. 

He did that, and even surprised himself, finishing fourth on stage five to Willunga Hill and sixth on the final stage to Mount Lofty. He finished sixth overall, at 33 seconds, the same as Adam Yates, who was leading Jayco AlUla. 

“Maybe for a lot of people it can be a disappointment but for me, I take it like a really big thing,” Alaphilippe said of his results. 

“I was more focused on the efforts. I was just focused on staying in the red zone, and it was a long time ago that I fought like this at this point of the race.

“I know myself, like, one year ago, for sure in this situation, I would feel directly that I cannot win, and I will attack or do two or three big efforts and explode and drop. I used to destroy myself. 

“[On Willunga Hill] I was in the mood to really fight, to go in the red zone and try to stay there. I knew it was going to be difficult to win because the guys who win here train a bloc’ (full on) in the winter, from November or even October, so I know where I am. 

“I was really motivated to give my best and see how I feel, I was surprised that I could fight with the best guys until the top of the climb. It’s a good surprise to be honest.” 

Alaphilippe on Lefevere: 'I just do my job, and he does his job'

Alaphilippe hasn’t lost the spark that has made him not just one of cycling’s most prolific winners, but also one of its most likeable, approachable, and respected riders in the sport.

Frightening crashes resulting in broken bones and surgery interrupted his career in 2022 and 2023 had an impact on the number of victories he’s notched over the last three years, but Alaphilippe is still a part of the winner’s circle. 

“I never lost this spirit but physically I couldn’t,” he said. “When I felt I cannot win I did a lot of time and effort just to kill myself because it was not funny for me…

“Now I feel that physically I do my best to come back to my best level, and this is the first big step for me. After that I will think about the victory, but [on Willunga Hill] I was back on that way, you know, to fight for the victory with a good feeling.” 

The 31-year-old Frenchman won the Faun Ardeche Classic and a stage victory at the Criterium du Dauphine in 2023 amid public criticism from Lefevere that his tally didn’t match his salary. 

Then the rumoured merger with Jumbo-Visma created huge uncertainty within the team. It was reported in December that Alaphilippe’s coach and cousin, Franck, would be let go in January. He is still listed on the team’s website.

Yet none of the noise and uncertainty has discouraged or even seemed to perturb the French puncheur and former world champion. He is resolute on what he wants to achieve this season and maintains consummate professionalism. 

“My relationship with Patrick was always the same the last few years,” Alaphilippe suggested. 

“We always talked together when it was super good and when it was less good. And I think now he knows I’m really busy, he knows I give my best every day, I know also how professional I am, so I just do my job, and he does his job.” 

I never think: ‘F--k it’s my contract year'

At the start of a new 2024 campaign, Alaphilippe is focused neither on the past, or the future but the present.

He is resolutely preparing for his big objectives of 2024, including the Flemish classics – “especially Tour of Flanders” – a debut at the Giro d’Italia and selection for the Paris Olympic Games on home soil.

“I take every season of my career like it’s the last one,” he said, making a point.

“I never think: ‘F--k it’s my contract year,’ or, ‘Last year I won a lot of [races], this year I don’t care,’ no.

“Every new season I start the winter like I won nothing before. I always think like this and to be honest, I don’t know where I will be next year, if I continue, if I continue in the team, if I continue cycling, I don’t know…”