Julian Alaphilippe exclusive: His Tour of Flanders dream, why Strade Bianche is 'favourite race'
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Updated 02/03/2023 at 12:13 GMT
Julian Alaphilippe boasts an impressive list of Classics wins, including Milan San-Remo and his “favourite race” Strade Bianche. But his biggest target remains unconquered: the Tour of Flanders. Alaphilippe says the race on the Belgian cobbles “transcends” cycling and is “why I ride a bike”. Alaphilippe had a miserable 2022 after a nasty crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April derailed his season.
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Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal–Quick-Step) has opened up to Eurosport about his “dream” of winning the Tour of Flanders as he declared this weekend’s Strade Bianche his “favourite race”.
The French puncheur is hoping to bounce back this season after seeing his 2022 derailed by a horror crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege last April, which left him with a collapsed lung, fractured shoulder blade and two broken ribs.
He opened his Classics campaign with victory at Faun-Ardeche last week, with his first major outing arriving on Saturday on the famous white roads of Tuscany at Strade Bianche, where he won the title in 2019. After completing the Italian swing, he will shift his attention to the Flanders Classics and, in particular, the Tour of Flanders (known locally as Ronde van Vlaanderen) on April 2.
“The Tour of Flanders is just behind Strade Bianche in my favourite races,” Alaphilippe .
“The one I dream of winning of course is Flanders first because I have already won the Strade Bianche. These are races where there is an atmosphere.
“Especially the Ronde in Belgium... That's why I ride a bike, it's to win these kinds of races that transcend the sport by their difficulty, their history, the crowd. You feel that if you win that, it's something else. If I win Flanders, I'll be happy!”
However, the 30-year-old insisted he would not change his physique to compete on the Belgian cobbles – where heavy, powerful riders typically enjoy an advantage.
“I don't want to gain weight to be better on the cobblestones,” he said.
“I remain with my qualities. I made efforts to try to recover a little bit [my weight] this winter but it was due to last season with the crashes and everything, I had lost a lot of muscle and power.
“I worked on that this winter, I feel better. It's something that made me feel good but it was not weight gain planned to be better on the cobblestones.
“I bet on my punch, when I'm really 100%, I'm really versatile. It is not by gaining five kilos that I will become a real sprinter. I also have a lot to lose.”
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Alaphilippe has one Monument title to his name from Milan-San Remo in 2019. He has also finished runner-up at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia, while he won the world road race in 2020 and 2021.
He heads to Strade Bianche, sometimes referred to as cycling's 'sixth Monument', on Saturday looking to win the race for a second time.
“I think it's my favourite race… the atmosphere, the country, the sights,” he said.
“Tuscany is an amazing place in Italy. I like it when I arrive in Italy to do the sequence Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, San-Remo. It marks the beginning of the season for me. It is an atypical race, anything and everything can happen in a few kilometres."
The Frenchman recalled his victory four years ago and his thrilling battle with Van der Poel in 2020 when he took second behind the Dutchman.
“The year I won was 2019 with [Jakob] Fuglsang. A very hard race, we started far from the finish, it was hot. I only really believed in victory at the top of the last cobbled climb before arriving in Piazza del Campo. I really hurt myself to win, that was something.
“The year with Mathieu, another great race. With him when he attacks or when I attack, when the race is unbridled, it's always hard. He was really impressive, I remember I struggled to recover after each sector.
"There was already a sector before the final where I was at the limit. I gritted my teeth to the line. I was cramping, as soon as I produced an effort, I had trouble keeping up. He was much fresher, he took off and I was second.”
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