Julian Alaphilippe in "a race against time" to start Tour de France

Julian Alaphilippe sustained heavy injuries in the mass crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and soon the debate on whether he'll be at the start of the Tour de France began. Patrick Lefevere talked about the expectations on his recovery, and discussed that possibility in his weekly Het Nieuwsblad column.

“Julian is recovering from a collapsed lung, a broken shoulder blade and two broken ribs, which have also been displaced. He is not allowed to move for three weeks, which is a torment for him as a jump-in-the-field. He will initially recover with his family in Ronse. He is not allowed to fly in his condition," Lefevere said.

“The big question is whether Julian will be there when the Tour departs in Denmark later. We will do everything we can, but it will be a race against time. If, in the most favorable case, he is back on his bike in mid-May, he still has six weeks. The Tour starts on Friday 1 July, a week earlier than usual. That is of course not an advantage," he added.

With the situation framed this way, it's surely not impossible to see the World champion at the Tour. Mathieu van der Poel began his training for the 2022 season in the final days of January, and returned to competition at Milano-Sanremo which was seven weeks later - in a level that allowed him to fight for the win. Taking into consideration that the Tour de France is a three-week long stage-race, there is definitely time for Alaphilippe to regain his best form in time to contend for stages at the Grand Boucle which should be his main goal.

“What we are definitely not going to do is use Evenepoel as a stand-in," he confirmed. Evenepoel himself recently pointed out that a change in schedule, so as to target the Tour de France, would not happen. "As he himself indicated in Extra Time Koers: we stick to his schedule. Not the Tour, but the Vuelta," he concluded.