Harrogate (United Kingdom) (AFP)

The cold and the rain showered French hopes, like the Julian Alaphilippe, dominated in the World Championship of cycling, Sunday in Harrogate (England).

Ranked 28th in a race that squeezed the organizations, Alaphilippe, the only leader of the French team, could not compete when the race was decimated at 33 kilometers from the finish.

"Julian was a bit short in the final," said the French coach Thomas Voeckler, who released his stripes in the Worlds. "He saw Trentin and van der Poel go out, he was close, but he just did not have the legs to go."

"I cracked the pedal," confirmed the hero of last July in the Tour de France (14 days in yellow). "I said, it's not the weather that I prefer."

Like his teammates, "Alaf" rallied the finish very marked. "I have rarely known this since the beginning of my career, we will all remember, it was a day of suffering, very difficult," he acknowledged.

Same speech at Tony Gallopin, the first French in the rankings (23rd). "It was very hard," said the Parisian. "Indescribable!"

- "An extraordinary day" -

"We ran well," said Gallopin. "When the shot was gone, Julian was in a good position but he could not keep up, he could not take it anymore, it was an extraordinary day."

Until then, the selection of Voeckler had respected the instructions to the letter. Leading the pack, Julien Bernard, Anthony Roux and especially Rémi Cavagna, alone at the helm for thirty kilometers, had ensured the work.

"The France team really did the job, everyone fulfilled the role I had assigned, the strategy was respected," said Voeckler.

"We have the right to be disappointed, it makes sense, but it is the law of sport to fall on stronger than oneself.In this sense, there is no regrets," added the coach.

For the French team, which has not won the world championship since 1997-the longest period of scarcity since the first edition of the Worlds in 1927-, it will take at least a year.

Next year, the "Blues" will find a course more in their strings, like the 2018 World Cup in Innsbrück (Austria) where they had played in excess in the final (Romain Bardet 2nd).

The circuit of Martigny, in French-speaking Switzerland, has everything to seduce the generation that packed the last Tour de France, including Alaphilippe.

© 2019 AFP