Julian Alaphilippe: I don't doubt that I'll get back to my best level

Form is temporary, but star quality is permanent. When the organisers of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et Montréal held a press briefing with the race favourites on Wednesday afternoon, the biggest scrum formed around Julian Alaphilippe, just as it did on his last appearance in these parts in 2019.

On that occasion, Alaphilippe was cycling’s man of the moment, having dominated the Spring and then spent two dizzying weeks in the yellow jersey, an adventure that almost saw him win the Tour de France itself.

This time out, the Frenchman arrives in Canada at the end of a season of largely unrewarded labour, a year marked by perspiration but bereft of inspiration. Victories at the Ardèche Classic and the Critérium du Dauphiné suggested a corner might have been turned. At the Classics and the Tour, however, he ran into repeated dead ends.

“I think it was a difficult year for me, with not a lot of success,” Alaphilippe confessed. “But it’s also been an important year, a year where I could learn a lot.”

The unwanted lessons already began in April of last year when Alaphilippe sustained two broken ribs, a broken scapula, and a punctured lung in a mass crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The recovery was arduous, and his return to competition at the end of last season was ill starred.

Victory on the Mur de Huy at the Tour de Wallonie was followed by a bout of COVID-19. A serviceable cameo on Remco Evenepoel’s behalf at the Vuelta a España was ended by a heavy crash. Alaphilippe hoped to start again from scratch in 2023, but the vim of old never quite returned. The road back from the Liège crash has been more arduous than anticipated.

“I think after last season, I wanted to do everything I could to come back on my level this year, and that’s what I’ve done,” Alaphilippe said. “Now, for the results, I have to be patient and continue to work hard like I always did. I hope to do a good end of the season and to have some success. That’s all I can say. I’m really motivated, and I’m doing everything I can to come back on my best level.”

Alaphilippe’s travails this season have played out against a persistent soundtrack of rumours linking him with a move away from Soudal-QuickStep before the expiry of his contract at the end of next year. That speculation was helped on its way by some typically frank declarations of tough love from manager Patrick Lefevere – “He has the salary of a champion, but he also has to prove that he is still one,” he said pointedly last winter – though Alaphilippe, for his part, insisted that he has not been angling for a move.

“I didn’t think about it, but I kept hearing about it,” Alaphilippe said. “I thought it was pointless to respond [to the rumours], especially when sometimes there were discussions between Patrick and me that should have stayed between Patrick and me, and which were exaggerated on the internet. But I never paid attention to that. I have another year on my contract.

“I’ve often had the question: ‘Where are you going next year?’ And I’ve always said: ‘I’ve got another year on my contract next year.’ And now I’ve got a season to finish with a lot of motivation.”

Patience

When Alaphilippe claimed his first world title with a virtuoso display at Imola in 2020, he occupied the same elite bracket as Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar. In the two years since his thunderous title defence in Leuven, however, he knows that his place in the firmament of one-day racing has become somewhat obscured.

“I’ve never rested on my laurels,” Alaphilippe said. “Even when I achieved my objectives, I thought about the next one, and I’ve never paid too much attention to what was going on around me, whether it was positive or negative. I’ve always said to myself that if I gave the maximum of myself, I would get through it.”

The great lesson of the past twelve months, Alaphilippe added, has been to appreciate the importance of patience. Even though his first season in the rainbow jersey yielded Flèche Wallonne, a Tour de France stage win and a second world title, Alaphilippe found himself constantly straining to honour his status as champion du monde. He felt compelled to try to put on a show every time he pinned on a number, and that sense of obligation didn’t really leave him the second time around.

“With the jersey, I put pressure on myself to be 100%, even when I wasn’t. I was stubborn that way, even before I had the jersey, but it became even more so afterwards,” Alaphilippe said.

“I’ve learned the value of patience now. I always wanted to be 100% at every race, but in the last months, I’ve learned that you have to take it on the chin sometimes. I still have the same desire as before, but I’m more patient. I don’t doubt that I’ll get back to my best level. That’s one of the things I’ve learned in recent months.”

Despite his travails, Alaphilippe lines up among the favourites in Québec on Friday and, even more so, in Montréal on Sunday. His partner Marion Rousse, meanwhile, will be in the commentary booth for French-Canadian station TVA. “I just hope they’ll be able to understand each other’s accents,” quipped Alaphilippe, who will also ride the Tour of Luxembourg and Il Lombardia in the final weeks of the season. There is still time to put a different slant on a trying campaign.

“Next year is a long way away. For now, I’m just thinking about Friday and Sunday,” he said. “I’ve always thought that way, I’ve always worked like that.”