Whether the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for late July, are held or not, the French Julian Alaphilippe, reigning world champion, will not participate. The rider of the Belgian team Deceuninck-Quick Step announced his decision this Friday on social networks. He was the favorite, with the Slovenes Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, the Belgians Wout Van Aert and Remco Evenepoel or the Dutch Mathieu Van Der Poel, in a difficult 234 km online race around Mount Fuji, with nearly 5,000 meters of elevation gain.
“It is a personal and carefully considered decision”, wrote Alaphilippe, on Twitter and Instagram, “In agreement with the coach of the France team and my Deceuninck-Quick Step team”. The Frenchman explains: “End-of-season objectives have been defined and in this sense, choices must be made. I would be very proud to wear the France team jersey for the next world championships ”, to be held in September in Flanders.
A clearly diminished French team
The decision of the fourth of the Rio Olympics in 2016 is motivated by the birth of her first child, scheduled for the month of June. The team also mentions that Patrick Lefevere, Alaphilippe’s manager, made a point of changing his rider’s mind, who left in the first place so as not to line up on the Tour de France (scheduled from June 26 to July 18), where he wore the yellow jersey over two editions (17 days in aggregate), but rather on the Tour of Italy, which ends on May 30.
In the absence of the world champion, and with the uncertainty surrounding the case of Thibaut Pinot, who still suffers from a back injury contracted following a fall during the first stage of the last Tour de France, the The France team advances significantly diminished. It could nevertheless count on Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Romain Bardet (DSM) or even David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). Alaphilippe’s defection is the first of a rider of this caliber for the Olympic men’s road cycling online event, which is scheduled to be held just six days after the arrival of the Tour de France in Paris.
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