"Julian has found his level again" - Alaphilippe back to his best form into World Championships, according to Thomas Voeckler
Cycling
Julian Alaphilippe found his legs back this year. After several years of illnesses and injuries which led to inconsistencies, the Frenchman is racing quite strong currently and will be an outsider for the World Championships title. Team national coach Thomas Voeckler is confident in the Soudal - Quick-Step's rider.
"I'm not worried about managing egos. If the guys are here, it's because I know they will work in the interest of the French team," Voeckler said in an interview with L'Équipe. In a more hilly and difficult course they won't be as strong as in the Paris Olympics; but come with Alaphilippe, David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas, Romain Bardet and Pavel Sivakov as strong cards.
In the tough Zurich course there will be bigger favourites such as Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel, the Frenchmen aren't expected to make the differences uphill but can use their numbers to race tactically strong and put pressure on rivals. And Voeckler believes that Julian Alaphilippe can be a very important card to play.
"When we look back, when we see his current level and the more complicated moments he experienced after his fall in Liège in 2022, we should all be happy. We find it normal that he came third in Canada (at the GP de Montréal, ed.) and in what style! And he was in the final at the [Olympic] Games," he said of the two-time World Champion.
"If we are honest, we said to ourselves: 'damn, let's hope he comes back' because he was far from what he was capable of doing. He is certainly not at the end of his cycle. Julian has found his level again with different characteristics from 2020 and 2021"
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024