Julian Alaphilippe on 2025 goals and racing style: "Nowadays everything is more and more about numbers, but I still love racing on instinct"
Cycling
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."
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- She appears as dominant among the women as Pogacar is in the men's peloton. But she doesn't appear to have even a basic understanding of racing tactics. Moreover, it seems like the entire field races against her, including her own team. This is odd, as she seems like a nice person in interviews, but something is clearly going on. If she just wants to go hard, she might do better switching to triathlon, or just running. It doesn't seem like she is going to figure out bike racing.
Barney09-01-2025 - i have MASSIVE respect for vollering as an athlete. how can you not? but i do agree about the limits of her tactical and interpersonal skills. if she had both to the same degree as someone like kasia niewiadoma, she would end her career someday as one of the greatest cyclists of all time — male, female, whatever…OCexile08-01-2025
- Completely agree.Mistermaumau08-01-2025
- i’m pretty sure mathieu has never spent a moment of his adult life dreaming of winning the Tour. he’s known for a very long time that that’s not the kind of rider he is. I’m also pretty sure he’s known for a very long time that TDF stages count for a lot in the palmares of big puncheurs like him and wout. he hasn’t decided he doesn’t care about racking up stage wins at the tour because they wouldn’t matter in terms of his legacy. he KNOWS they would. so it’s more interesting than that. he doesn’t care about stages IN SPITE of knowing how much they “matter.” he doesn’t care because he just DOESN’T CARE about anyone else’s standards or judgments. he decides what he’s interested in, what captures his imagination, and he just does THAT (within the WIDE parameters of free choice he’s allowed at Alpecin, which are certainly wider and freer than anyone else in the peloton).OCexile08-01-2025
- Isn't the riders comming from indoor e-sport cycling crashing a lot?Jkolner12308-01-2025
- Right... Unless the two people above consider 2 Paris Roubaix and 3 Ronde meaningless... You don't win that many editions by being lucky.alsene08-01-2025
- Call it how you want, in order to win which matters to him, even if it’s for the team as lead-out, he has to and tries to be in top shape 10 out of 12 months, whether that’s a bunch of peaks, a couple of prolonged peaks or just that his general level is so good he can win anytime without peaking is a new discussion.Jumpyjohn08-01-2025
- I think he’s right and mental attitude is one of the biggest factors at elite level, especially over 3 weeks.Jumpyjohn08-01-2025
- Enforcing cease and desist isn't working. The site is still live (8 Jan 13:55 CET)leodis08-01-2025
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