Back in 2014 Julian Alaphilippe took on his very first race as a WorldTour professional at the Tour Down Under and now it is confirmed that he is set to return to South Australia in 2024, but this time there will be no blending in with the peloton.
The French Soudal-QuickStep rider, who has in the meantime become a two-time world road race champion and six-time Tour de France stage winner, will be using the race as a launching pad in a season where his first big goal is the Tour of Flanders.
“There are many undulating roads and tough climbs throughout various stages of this race, but I’m particularly excited to revisit Willunga Hill along with Mount Lofty for the first time, as I believe both will provide great opportunities for our team to finish strong,” said Alaphilippe in a media statement from the six-stage Australian race.
Willunga has long been a regular, and extremely popular, feature of the Australian race while Mount Lofty near Adelaide was introduced in 2023 as the finishing climb. At the next edition of the race, however, both the ascents will be packed into the closing weekend of the men's WorldTour event – which runs from Tuesday January 16 to Sunday January 21 – to provide two summit finish stages to close the race.
“I expect Alaphilippe to do very well in the hardest final weekend of TDU racing history, especially as someone who’s won the Tour de France King of the Mountain classification and wore the most prestigious yellow jersey for 18 days in his highly successful career,” race director Stuart O'Grady said.
Alaphilippe is among the early start list confirmations for the race, with Caleb Ewan the other headliner already announced, but the sprinter is likely to be showing up at the front on the flatter earlier stages as he strives to deliver victories to his new Jayco-AlUla squad. The two riders may excel on very different terrain but both will be striving to use the race as an early season turning point after some difficult seasons.
The French rider has had two wins apiece the last two seasons, but has missed the mark on some of his big objectives. While crashes and injuries have certainly taken a toll, team boss Patrick Lefevere has in the past been vocal in his criticisms of the rider, who has a contract with the team that is expiring at the end of 2024. The latest development is the reports that the rider's coach and cousin Franck Alaphilippe is being let go.
Still, the rider has made clear that he is motivated heading into the 2024 season, having marked out not just Tour of Flanders as a key early season race, but also Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and other Flemish Classics. First, however, it will be the Australian stage-race, where the Soudal-QuickStep team will be looking to pick up its first stage win at the event since 2020, when Sam Bennett claimed the opening day sprint. If they did, too, manage to secure overall victory it would be the first time a rider from the team claimed the final ochre jersey since Allan Davis in 2009.
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