Julian Alaphilippe on 2025 goals and racing style: "Nowadays everything is more and more about numbers, but I still love racing on instinct"

Julian Alaphilippe, alongside Marc Hirschi, were the star signings of Tudor Pro Cycling Team and this Tuesday they were presented at the Swiss team's media day, talking about many things from transfer motivations to goals, wildcards and more. The former World Champion has been quite honest about his feelings and answers many of these questions.

"Honestly: WorldTour or not, that never played a role in my mind. I completely followed my feelings," Alaphilippe said in a press conference, as reported by Het Nieuwsblad. "I asked myself the question 'what do I want?' And that is to enjoy cycling in a good structure. The Tudor project simply matches what I want. For the time being, everything is going well and I am happy. I am convinced that this was the right time to take this step. I needed fresh motivation.”

The Frenchman has spent most of his career in the Soudal - Quick-Step project where he achieved a lot, including two World titles and a dream stint in the yellow jersey at the 2019 Tour de France, where it seemed like he could actually take the win, and ended up finishing amongst the first.

Over the past few years he's struggled as an effect of several injuries and illnesses that came at a bad time, however in 2024 he bounced back to win a much needed stage at the Giro d'Italia. His strongest performance of the year however may have been at the Clàsica San Sebastián where he and Hirschi himself battled for victory. He took second place, but showed his best legs for years. At age 32, the veteran continues to be motivated to win.

"Amstel, Liège, Lombardia, stages in the Tour… those are the races that motivate me. And the Tour of Flanders remains a dream. It is very difficult for me to win the Tour, I know that, but I want to keep trying," he admits. We do not know whether Tudor will race the cobbled monuments or not as of yet, this will depend on the organizations' decisions to provide wildcard, but the duo's presence helps immensely.

Alaphilippe also says that he will not be changing his racing style after changing team, being clear that it's how he likes to race: "Old school. I do it the same way today as I did ten years ago. I am not going to change that. Nowadays everything is more and more about numbers, but I still love racing on instinct. And I will do that until I stop.”

“You can break all kinds of records, but the most important thing is still how you feel on the bike," he adds. "And of course the results you achieve. Sometimes I see riders looking at their computers right after a race. They don't care what position they finished in or how the race went. If they've broken wattage records, they're happy. That's not what cycling is about for me."