Virginie Phulpin 7:27 am, September 27, 2021

Every day, the morning of Europe 1 looks back on one of the sporting events that make the news.

This Monday, Virginie Phulpin looks back on Julian Alaphilippe's victory in cycling, he retains his title of world champion.

Julian Alaphilippe retains his title of world champion in road cycling.

The Frenchman won a monumental race yesterday in Leuven, Belgium.

For Virginie Phulpin, it's one of those moments of sport that we will remember in 20 years and more.

You take all the ingredients that make the sport so beautiful, you mix it up, and you get a masterpiece that can be placed directly in the pantheon of cycling. A relentless team strategy, sprinkled with the infallible instinct of the runner. Julian Alaphilippe and the France team knocked everyone out yesterday. Their opponents, the crowded roadside audience, and all the viewers standing on their sofas, pinching themselves to believe what they were going through. Julian Alaphilippe is the one who makes a romantic rainbow appear in the middle of our first Sunday in autumn. Last year, the French won his first iridescent jersey by putting an end to 23 years of tricolor scarcity.He was the favorite of the race and he had assumed his status brilliantly by winning in Italy without the fervor of an audience absent due to Covid. It was strong. Very strong. But then there, this Sunday, Julian Alaphilippe passed a new pass out of category in the mountains of sporting emotions. He was putting his title on the line, he was not the first of the favorites, no. He had left this role to the Belgian Wout Van Aert, whom hundreds of thousands of spectators had come to bring to victory in these Belgian lands where cycling is the first language.He had left this role to the Belgian Wout Van Aert, whom hundreds of thousands of spectators had come to bring to victory in these Belgian lands where cycling is the first language.He had left this role to the Belgian Wout Van Aert, whom hundreds of thousands of spectators had come to bring to victory in these Belgian lands where cycling is the first language.

These supporters heckled Julian Alaphilippe, but they ended up being won over, because you cannot remain insensitive to a runner who constantly attacks as if his life depended on it, and who turns a race into a monument.

It is the victory of Julian Alaphilippe, but it is also the victory of the France team.

Yes, cycling is a team sport. It was the blue armada that led Julian Alaphilippe to victory. With the coach Thomas Voeckler who knows perfectly how to take his troops with him. He had a precise strategy. Attack constantly, dynamite the peloton, wear down the opponents and win in the end. A strategy applied to the letter. But for sport to go from the beautiful to the wonderful, it takes an extra spark. The instinct of Julian Alaphilippe. The rider came to ask his coach how to approach the end of the race. And he did exactly the opposite of what was asked of him ...

Applying the instructions is good.

Organizing a fireworks display in the end is better.

Hard on the legs, tiring on the nerves, but so beautiful.

To touch the rainbow, you also need a touch of madness.

Of those that we retain and that we will remember.

What were you doing on September 26, 2021?

I watched Julian Alaphilippe win in Leuven.

No more doubt, the runner is well installed at the table of the greatest sportsmen that France has known.