Nîmes (AFP)

Julian Alaphilippe, leading the Tour de France at the start of the third week, refuses the ambition of final victory, aware that the yellow jersey "hangs by a thread". Course, team, recovery: the questions are many as the approach of the last straight line.

. Does he have the profile to hold?

Five steps to take before the Champs-Elysees, including three in high altitude in the Alps. Six summits over 2000 meters, 12 climbs listed, two arrivals in the heights and passages on the mythical passes of Galibier then Iseran.

Alaphilippe has the legs of his life, but will he resist the favorites of the general classification, who have spent much less energy until then? "The hardest thing is yet to come," he told reporters on Monday, with his face still marked by his efforts the previous day.

"A minute and a half early is a lot and a little at a time, a failure in a 15, 20-kilometer pass and it's over," he said, aware that the chain of highs he has recognized, will not be to his advantage. "The climb of Val Thorens (Saturday, the day before the arrival in Paris), it will be terrible to the top.When I look at the profile of these alpine stages, I tell myself that my jersey is only one wire. "

. Is his team strong enough?

The spectacular failure of Enric Mas, the Spanish climber of the Deceuninck team, originally supposed to play the top 5 overall, has something to worry Alaphilippe, quickly lonely when the road rises. Sunday, he had to fetch himself a canister to the car of his formation in the last descent, before even the final ascent!

"To play the final victory, we would need people who climb well and today we miss it, so we must not dream," conceded Patrick Lefevere, the boss of the Belgian formation.

"We do not have the team to win the Tour," said Alaphilippe. "We knew that when we arrived with three leaders (Elia Viviani, Mas and himself), we could not have five team members around each leader".

However, it has the ideal team to be quiet until Thursday, because Deceuninck is a roller coaster on the transition stages to less steep profiles.

. Can he recover?

"He lost a lot of strength," says Davide Bramati, the team's sports director. Between his attacks at Epernay (3rd stage), Saint-Etienne (9th stage), his efforts at the top of the pack for the sprinter of the team Elia Viviani on the stages of flat, his time trial disputed at both blocks and the two Pyrenean stages, Alaphilippus was not preserved.

And his sports director sees poor days to come as real chances to recharge the batteries. "From Wednesday, there will surely be 100 runners who want to go in the breakaway, so it could go for 100 kilometers and then the Alps ...", lists the Italian.

Moreover, since the beginning of the Tour, Alaphilippe has only had four stages without the yellow jersey. The rest of the time, he had to submit to the long protocol that accompanies each end of stage of a yellow jersey.

On Monday, he spent nearly 20 minutes with the press in an overheated room, before giving himself some rest. "I'm happy to be able to breathe a bit, see my family and not touch the bike," he said, not stingy with words as usual. "It's part of the yellow jersey, I'm happy to do it, if you want to ask me a lot more questions, go ahead!" I answer the same things every time!

© 2019 AFP