Soudal-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefevere has once again issued bracing public criticism of Julian Alaphilippe, telling Belgian magazine Humo that he felt the two-time world champion had lost focus since signing a contract extension with the team in the spring of 2021.
Alaphilippe won his second straight world title later that year, but his 2022 campaign was interrupted by a heavy crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and another fall at the Vuelta a España. In 2023, the Frenchman won the Faun-Ardèche Classic and a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, but he fell well short of expectations at the Classics.
