The strongest ever Julian Alaphilippe before Tour de France? "We changed our goal" after brilliant GC ride in Suisse

Julian Alaphilippe is now riding in a peloton that is much superior to that where he has won two World titles in 2020 and 2021, but he is currently racing at an extremely high level at the Tour de Suisse. Today he can go on to finish on the final podium and show the best possible signs into the Tour de France.

The Frenchman was part of the winning breakaway on stage 1 and surprisingly, he is one of the riders who has handled the best all the mountainous stages that have been raced so far. Whilst Romain Grégoire cracked out of GC, Ben O'Connor struggled in the mountains, Alaphilippe is the best placed except for Kévin Vauquelin who currently leads the race.

Whilst the Swiss race lacked a true high mountain stage, Alaphilippe's performances have not gone unnoticed as he himself is not a climber, but has been putting in his best climbing performances since potentially the 2019 Tour de France where he led for most of the way. He finished fifth last Saturday on another day attacked hard by João Almeida and Felix Gall, and enters the final time-trial in third place with 38 seconds over Oscar Onley.

"It was another very fast and difficult day. I am very proud of my team, today and for the whole wee. At the start of the race last Sunday, the goal was to win a stage, but after the first stage, we found ourselves in a situation where the general classification was also important, so we changed our goal," the Frenchman said after stage 7.

"I'm happy to see the whole team working for this. Tomorrow, I'll give my best and try to keep the podium, even though I know the competition is tough". A brutal mountain time-trial will make it a difficult task, but one that is still possible - although regardless, he will bring in valuable UCI points for Tudor Pro Cycling Team.