"To be honest, I don’t know where I will be next year, if I continue in the team or if I continue cycling" - Julian Alaphilippe hints at possible retirement

2024 was always expected to be a big year for Julian Alaphilippe. The final year of his current Soudal - Quick-Step contract, the Frenchman has now hinted it may even be the final year of his professional career.

"To be honest, I took every season of my career like it’s the last one," says the former, two-time world champion in conversation with GCN. "I never think about ‘fuck, it’s my contract year’ or ‘oh, last year I won a lot so this year I don’t care.’ Every new season I started like I won nothing before. I always think like this. To be honest, I don’t know where I will be next year, if I continue in the team [or] if I continue cycling, I don’t know."

Starting the campaign relatively well at the Tour Down Under, Alaphilippe looked bright as he finished 6th overall. "It was a really beautiful few weeks we have here and after, it will be the time to start in Europe for the Classics," he reflects. "A completely different mood and atmosphere and weather, but I think I am already happy now."

"I saw the result of a good feeling. Simply, I came here with the ambition to see how I feel and I was realistic with my ambition about results, because I knew what I did during the winter," he continues. "I was surprised that I can fight with the best guys until the top of the climb, it is a good surprise, to be honest. I knew it would be difficult to win because the guys that win here, I know they train a bloc all winter since November and even October. I knew where I am and it’s a good surprise to be there already."

If this is to be Alaphilippe's final year, he's going to do so without a Tour de France farewell as the Frenchman is set to debut at the Giro d'Italia in a few months. "For sure it’s a different race but you don’t have to think that the Giro is more easy than the Tour or more easy than the Vuelta. Even here, there are always guys who are 100 percent always in every race. I know the Giro is really one of the hardest races, I saw on the television the last few years and it is a really tough race," he concludes.

"It is nice to have new goals and after two difficult seasons, it is nice to choose your goal, to take your time, to go where you want to go and to be 100 per cent where you have to be, but like I said before, to be at my level 100 per cent, this is my first goal of the season. I think I have a good programme to try to make it."