Julian Alaphilippe ahead of the Tour de la Provence: "I’m so happy to be here and take on four intense days of racing"

The World Champion Julian Alaphilippe will be in France this week for the Tour de la Provence where he will be looking to better his runner-up spot of last year, however without pressure as above all he comes to get race feeling back.

"I’m motivated to restart my season here in France, and with the rainbow jersey on my shoulders. I’m relaxed, not yet at 100% as I was sick, but I want to find again my rhythm. I’m so happy to be here and take on four intense days of racing," Alaphilippe said in a pre-race statement alongside the team.

On a separate interview with Sporza, the Frenchman details a bit more how the pre-season went and how he's feeling the day previous to his first race day of the year: "I’ve had an excellent winter. On our recent team camp in Portugal, we were able to train good. I’ve made a good step forward there in my preparation for the new season. I love to start my year in France."

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"The ITT will be a short effort, but really hard. I don’t have specific ambitions, there are a lot of good riders here. I’m not nervous. I feel more relaxed than last year, as my targets are a bit later this season," he affirms, having switched his focus of the cobbled classics to his original specialization on the hilly classics, where he is still to conquer Liège-Bastogne-Liège despite numerous near-misses.

"The Ardennes classics are my big goal, but the Italian races [Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo] are important for the team. We decided to race in Itzulia Basque Country between Italy and Belgium. If it doesn’t work out, next year will be Flemish classics again."

More than anything, Alaphilippe appears to be using this week as a test, however that will surely not prevent him from being in the head of affairs.