Nothing has gone right for Julian Alaphilippe this spring
With spring on the retina, we can well say that this time the rainbow has not come outor what is the same, we have not seen Julian Alaphilippe appear, not to the extent to which we are accustomed.
Here we see what we say about cycling, as something hard and long, a kind of roller coaster of good, bad and mediocre moments, a draw of difficulties that never ends.
You will remember three years ago, my friend Julian, everything worked out for him, until a sprint that cleared the sprinters in Tirreno.
He won Strade, he did the same in San Remo, with a brutal command of the scene, and then his beloved Flecha Wallona.
That Alaphilippe was the bogeyman, the master of spring, a dominator of uncertain races if there ever was one, like we have rarely seen.
But the story changes depending on how it is told and who stars in it, last year – since in 2020 there was no spring -, Alaphilippe already had encounters in the first person with the Van Aert-Van der Poel duo with results of all kindsbut away from the 2019 campaign.
Last year’s Tirreno was especially nice, with the three playing cat and mouse.
This year in Tirreno, we already noticed that this Julian was not the one from previous years.
It certainly influenced the host that got stuck in the Strade Bianchewhen he went flying in one of the dirt sections.
#StradeBianche | ?♂️?????An impressive gust of crosswind caused a HARD FALL? in the Strade Bianche that involved the ?WORLD CHAMPION? Julian Alaphilippe already more than half the platoon?♂️??? Is the helicopter being blamed? of TV….pic.twitter.com/czTpnbxgVI
— Mundo Ciclístico (@mundociclistico) March 5, 2022
That fall took him out of the white road race and I think it weighed on him for much of the spring.
In Tirreno he was seen one step below the best and San Remo could not attend, bronchitis was to blame.
This time he did not want experiments in Flanders and focused his forces on the Ardennes.
Along the way he managed to get wet in Itzulia, the day that Remco put himself at his service, that stage in which the escapees from the Spanish pro teams shot themselves in the foot.
Euskadi seemed like a good setting to fatten the chicken, but no.
The count stopped on the second day, because Pello Bilbao and Dani Martínez clearly beat him in separate sprints.
You see, Pello and Dani, on paper much less fast, but those two days were insurmountable for Alaphilippe.
The Ardennes came and things did not improve.
He chose the Pogacar wheel for the assault of his fourth Walloon Arrow and there was no way.
The Slovenian burst before the push of Teuns, Valverde and Vlasov and cut Julian, that was the end of the story.
And then Liege, with the fall in which Bardet took him off the embankment, a brutal blow, with broken ribs, among other things, and a recovery that is expected to be long, let’s see if he makes it to the Tour.
It hasn’t been Julian Alaphilippe’s spring, what he did with flying colors a while ago, as if it didn’t cost him, is now making a difference.
Beyond the period, cycling needs guys like Julianthe pepper of any salad, we hope to see you again on the road, champion.
Imagen: ASO/Gautier Demouveaux
2023-10-03 11:22:17
#Alaphilippes #future #air #Soudals
