Julian Alaphilippe showed his aptitude for the Tour of Flanders on his ill-fated debut in the autumn of 2020, when he found himself in the winning break with Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert only to clip a motorbike and crash out of the race.
The Frenchman’s relationship with the Ronde has never really recovered. The following Spring, he was relatively subdued as his teammate Kasper Asgreen claimed victory. Last year, another crash compromised his race, and he rolled him an anonymous 51st.
Alaphilippe leads the line again for Soudal-QuickStep this year alongside Asgreen, but they find themselves firmly in the position of outsiders after a Spring campaign that has fallen far short of expectations. The Frenchman recognised as much at Soudal headquarters in Turnhout on Friday.
“I’m coming with the ambition of achieving a result,” Alaphilippe told RMC radio. “Maybe I can consider myself an outsider, but above all I consider myself a rider who has to give his all and go for the best possible result. I don't want to place myself in the hierarchy of the current riders, I don't care about all that.
“I know that the level is very high, and there are riders who are very, very, very strong. There's one big favourite, Mathieu van der Poel, but we're concentrating on what we've got. I know we'll have to adapt because we're far from being the favourites. We're going to find it hard to win, but we're going to give it our all.”
Although Alaphilippe placed 9th at Milan-San Remo two weeks ago, he made little impression in his two outings on the cobbles to date, at E3 Saxo Classic and Dwars door Vlaanderen. Last weekend, meanwhile, Soudal-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefevere suggested that he had erred in tying Alaphilippe, Asgreen and Yves Lampaert to their current contracts.
That critique was mild, of course, in comparison to some of Lefevere’s other jabs at Alaphilippe over the past year or so. In an interview with Humo published last month, Lefevere had made rather more bracing comments about Alaphilippe, suggesting that the blame for his below-par displays lay with his lifestyle and his relationship with his partner, the Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse.
When Soudal-QuickStep held a press conference ahead of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad later that week, it was decreed by the team that Alaphilippe would not speak about the matter. By then, Rousse had responded to Lefevere’s comments on social media, calling on the Belgian to “show a little more class.” On Friday, Alaphilippe downplayed the idea that he had been affected by Lefevere’s criticism.
“I really managed to detach myself from it as much as possible, like I often do," Alaphilippe told RMC. “I was more annoyed about Marion, who didn't ask for this and who doesn't like being involved at all. She didn't like being involved in things like that, which were pointless and made no sense. Some things are supposed to be personal, and it's a bit annoying when it keeps coming out. But for me, no, I've detached myself from it. I don't care, in fact.
“The only thing I can do is do my job well, and I’ve been doing it very well, as well as I can, for many years. So long as I feel like that, I don't care about the rest. What matters to me is that my son is in good health and that I do my job to the best of my ability.”
Lefevere, meanwhile, was asked about his criticism of Alaphilippe in an interview published in Saturday’s edition of L’Équipe, and he once again claimed that his original comments in Dutch had been taken out of context when translated.
“I don't want to go back over this episode. I just want people to understand that I too am shocked that I can't say what I think. And not just about Julian,” said Lefevere, later adding: “The problem is that you French, like the English, you don’t take the trouble to translate what I say properly.”
Both Lefevere and Alaphilippe are in agreement, however, that Soudal-QuickStep have a point to prove at the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. The team has won the race eight times over the years, but they know that they have it all to do this time around after a trying cobbled Classics season thus far.
“It’s still an objective of mine to win the Tour of Flanders someday,” Alaphilippe said. “But when I look at the last few weeks, I have the impression that it’s a dream that’s going further and further away. But you always have to believe. We’re here to try to win the race and we’re going to give our maximum.”
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