"It's another great day for the French team" - Julian Alaphilippe helps Madouas & Laporte to silver and bronze in Paris Olympic road race

From Leon Marchand's multiple golds in the pool, to Victor Koretzky's mountain bike silver, across the board at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the French have seemingly been performing a level above thanks in part to the incredible support of the home crowd.

On Saturday afternoon, Valentin Madouas and Christophe Laporte secured two more reasons to celebrate for Team France as the duo took home silver and bronze respectively behind Remco Evenepoel in the men's elite road race. Key to their success however, was the selfless performance of arguably the more heralded of the French road race team, Julian Alaphilippe, who eventually crossed the line in 11th himself.

"The goal was to win or get on the podium. Remco won, he was the strongest, that's undeniable, so from there getting 2nd and 3rd is the best result we could have done," Alaphilippe reflected post-race to the French press. "I'm really happy for Val (Madouas) , for Chris (Laporte) , they're great guys. We did the race we had to do, so it's another great day for the French team."

"We know how to sacrifice ourselves for each other, and I think that today we had the best race we could have, and it's never easy to arrive with the ambition of winning or getting medals," continues Alaphilippe, full of praise for the French set up under national coach Thomas Voeckler. "It's a tough race and we put two guys on the podium, so we can be satisfied, of course."

As mentioned, Alaphilippe's trade teammate at Soudal - Quick-Step, Remco Evenepoel was the eventual gold medal winner, something the Alaphilippe was almost equally delighted to witness. "He's calmed down, he's progressed, and I think he's also much stronger than he was a few years ago," concludes the multiple time former world champion, full of praise for his teammate. "I think his results right now don't surprise anyone, it's great for him, and I'm happy for him."