"I'm having a really hard time in this Tour" - Julian Alaphilippe acknowledges difficulties and underwhelming Tour de France

Julian Alaphilippe has been relentlessly chasing breakaways and a stage win in this year's Tour de France but is bringing no results. The former World Champion admits the difficulty to achieve them in such a strong field.

“It was intense and difficult. Last year I missed the Tour and I kind of forgot how fast things go here all the time and how much stress there is. The battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard complicates things further, as they constantly want to show the other who is stronger," the Frenchman says in an interview with L'Équipe. "As a result, they are chasing the leading groups so fast that there is nothing they can do about it."

Alaphilippe has already been present in five breakaways out of 15 stages, so a third of the race. In other days he has also attempted to be part, as well as occasionally support Fabio Jakobsen in the sprints in the first week. His best result so far however was a 10th spot on stage 10 to Issoire which was a certain breakaway day, not something to brag about at the end of the day, specially as Soudal - Quick-Step struggle to achieve any result throughout the race.

"My condition is just not perfect, so I'm having a really hard time in this Tour. At the start of the stage I often feel good, but during the stage I can't maintain that level. I notice that I can't compete for the win. The first two stages in the Basque Country were perfect for me, but I immediately felt that it was not physically possible," he added, having been dropped on both days from the peloton and not contest the stage.

Notably, the Frenchman has been in the wind quite a lot. Often in the formation of breakaways he goes all-out to try and escape, and in other instances - such as the most recent stage 15 - he has opted to attack early on in a move that had no hopes of succeeding, eventually burning himself before the attacks began. "I stay true to myself: it's all or nothing. Whether I can compete for the win or explode, in both cases I will get everything out of it," he explains. 

Sure enough it hasn't been a successful strategy so far, and it's unlikely that he'll achieve a win in the final week taking into consideration that there are two high mountain stages, a mountain time-trial and three flat days where bunch sprints are expected. "I put aside the frustration that it didn't lead to results, because I know it's hard to win now. Even if it is not easy to hurt yourself so much for a result that you may consider anecdotal," he concluded.