Leuven (Belgium) (AFP)

A second title a year apart.

But, in twelve months, things have changed for Julian Alaphilippe, again world cycling champion on Sunday in Leuven:

He became a father

On June 14, his partner Marion Rousse, the former 2012 French champion who became a TV consultant, gave birth to their son Nino.

Less than a year after the death of Jo Alaphilippe, his dad, drummer in an orchestra which animated village balls in the region of Montluçon (Allier), to whom he had promised to become world champion.

Sunday, after winning his second title, he said he thought of his son in the last moments of the race, to give himself strength.

"I left home a few days after the birth, it was a difficult moment", admitted at the start of the Tour this hyper-active who is also very emotional sensitive to the prestige of the rainbow.

"I did my best to honor this world champion's jersey, to make it shine. If I had lived a white season, inside, it would have been difficult to live. Here, I gave everything, everything that I had to give, "he insisted recently in L'Equipe.

Julian Alaphilippe, world road champion for the 2nd consecutive year, and his partner Marion Rousse, after the podium ceremony, September 26, 2021 in Louvain Kenzo Tribouillard AFP

He won four times in a year

Omnipresent throughout the season, the Bourbonnais installed in Andorra since the winter of 2018-2019, near the village of La Massana, enriched his score with four additional victories before his recital in Leuven. The main ? the Flèche Wallonne, for the third time, and the first stage of the Tour de France in Landerneau (Finistère) which earned him the yellow jersey once again at the top of the Fosse-aux-Loups hill. Since 2019, his great year on the Tour (2 stages, the yellow jersey for 14 days, 5th place in the final standings), he has always managed to win at least one stage of the Tour and to wear the leader's jersey.

"The Landerneau stage counts a lot," said the Frenchman who, at 29, now has 37 victories since his professional debut in 2014. "Winning on the Tour is always special, moreover wearing the yellow jersey for the third year in a row. When I used to watch the Tour on TV, I never imagined doing what I did. "

The joy of Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, winner of the 1st stage of the Tour de France and wearing the leader's yellow jersey, on June 26, 2021 in Landerneau christophe petit tesson POOL / AFP / Archives

But he failed in the great classics

As a result of the pandemic and the upheavals of the calendar, + Alaf + led two classic campaigns following its success at Imola. If he could not run the Tour of Lombardy (organized in August 2020 and in October 2021), he presented himself twice at the start of the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, two "monuments" that 'he covets.

In Flanders, his chances were quickly reduced due to a fall which forced him to retire last year and thwarted his winter (broken hand).

In Liège, he came close to victory twice.

But he missed the boat for the first time in 2020, when he raised his arms too early before the line (before being demoted for a gap) in a race won by Slovenian Primoz Roglic.

He failed again last April in a sprint in a small committee (2nd) behind another Slovenian, Tadej Pogacar.

He will have another chance next year.

© 2021 AFP