As the 2024 cycling season nears its close so does Julian Alaphilippe's time at Soudal-Quickstep, as the final race with the team where he started his career is due to unfold at Il Lombardia on October 12.
It was announced last month that he would be joining Fabian Cancellara's Tudor Pro Cycling Team on a three-year deal, something Alaphilippe's current boss Patrick Lefevere described, despite his public criticism of the Frenchman in recent times, as the 'end of an era'. However, it is a chance 'to have a new environment and see something new' at just the right time in his illustrious career according to the two-time World Champion.
Alaphilippe is currently in Canada for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, racing with the hope of making France's Road World Championships team for Zurich, but also allowing him a chance to look back at the things he would miss most from his memorable stint at the Belgian squad.
"It's difficult to say one thing because for sure the most important thing I will miss was being with the people I was always with – it's not only 10 years of my career, it's a third of my life," Alaphilippe told the assembled media, including Cyclingnews.
"Of course, there were ups and downs but I always enjoyed it and loved the time I had in the team so this is what I will miss the most, like my staff and teammates. But in the end, it's also good to have so many memories.
"For me and for them it's also life, it's one circle, so it's a good timing for me to have a new environment and see something new."
It's been an iconic 10 years for the panache-personifying two-time World Champion in Quickstep blue, with memorable victories arriving at Milan-SanRemo, Strade Bianche, La Flèche Wallonne (three times), the Giro d'Italia and, of course, the Tour de France.
Alaphilippe became a Tour de France icon, netting six stage wins over the years and even almost winning the race in 2019 with some daredevil tactics, a true champion of French racing and a rider so synonymous with the rainbow bands after his thrilling wins in Imola and Leuven.
Alaphilippe may well be bringing his talents to the black and red of Tudor in 2025, but it wasn't always the Swiss squad who were frontrunners to sign him, with French team TotalEnergies pushing to bring the swashbuckling Frenchman to a home team in the twilight years of his career. Alaphilippe ultimately went with what he thought suited him best – the growing Swiss outfit.
"It was not easy to call Jean-René Bernaudeau from TotalEnergies with Benoit Genauzeau because it's not only from this year, it's already a few years that I know that they really want me in the team and it was also a really nice project," Alaphilippe said.
"So I knew the disappointment from them when I made my decision and that was not easy for me. But in the end, you have to think about yourself which is a really hard job. It's your decision so when I knew I wouldn't stay, I had to call the other teams and I'm happy with my decision."
It's a decision that Bernaudeau believes will almost certainly net the Swiss team one of the Tour de France wildcard spots, with his French team now at risk of missing the Tour for the first time since their inception in 2000.
"The only thing I regret is the length of the negotiations. Because it really took a long time. I understand, of course, a refusal but I would have liked to receive it earlier," Bernaudeau told Le Parisien.
"It's not the same thing to know it in June or at the beginning of August. The timing put us in difficulty and we found ourselves with a lot of riders to whom we had said no because we were hoping for Julian."
The final howl
For now, however, Alaphilippe is all in on is closing out his time at Quickstep with a bang, something he's already done by taking a stunning solo win at the Giro d'Italia in May but the ever-willing Frenchman is hopeful for one more howl with the 'Wolfpack'.
"I'm really focused on every race that is coming until my last one in Lombardy. I enjoy it even more I think because I really realise that every race is one day closer to the end," he said.
"I still have races and for me, I don't even start to think about next year for the moment. For sure it's my goal to try to win again something. There is less and less opportunity now so I hope I will do it, it's my goal until the end and I will do everything for that."
After a tumultuous couple of years ruined by crashes and injuries, Alaphilippe is also back in the fight for race wins after trusting the process, having also claimed stage victories at the Tour de Slovakia and Czech Tour this season. While his new venture at Tudor may not bring the same excitement he did in the past seven years, Julian Alaphilippe is far from finished lighting up the racing at cycling's elite level.
"My best shape I don't know, but I come back in good shape, I enjoy racing, I'm able to fight for the victory in the final," said Alaphilippe.
"If I have the reason, I will let you know," he said referring to his struggles. "I didn't know the reason so when you do everything you can and you just fight against the bad moment, you know that one moment it will turn."
