"It's not always the case but the strongest of the whole peloton has won and his victory is well deserved," coach Thomas Voeckler said, summing up the general feeling in the blue camp after the Belgian's show of force. author of a fantastic ride of more than 30 kilometres.

There were even a lot of smiles in the mixed zone where Julian Alaphilippe, the double defending champion, and Florian Sénéchal recalled that the jersey remained "in the team", they who are teammates in the year of the new king of the Belgians at Quick-Step.

"He was very strong, and not just today. He had an extraordinary season. I am very, very happy for him", underlined "Alaf" who, on arrival, tenderly hugged Evenepoel for whom he was still stripped during the recent Vuelta, until his abandonment after a fall.

Not completely recovered, Alaphilippe never managed to really weigh on the race and gave up without too much remorse, at the end of a rotten season, a rainbow jersey sometimes heavy to wear.

"I had taken the time to imagine myself without a jersey. (...) It will make me appreciate the moments I had with it even more", he commented.

"Movement"

“With all the misfortunes he had, Julian was not 100%, reported Florian Sénéchal. But we had several cards. We did an action race, we did not stay hidden in the peloton ."

In fact, the French dynamited the race as in the two previous editions, placing several riders in front as soon as they climbed Mount Keira, the main difficulty of the day but placed too far from the finish to make a difference.

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"The plan was to toughen up the race and we did that," said Christophe Laporte.

"We created movement, we were where we needed to be," added Alaphilippe.

Super active, the French stayed in the game for a long time, with four more riders (Romain Bardet, Pavel Sivakov, Florian Sénéchal and Quentin Pacher) in the leading group from which Evenepoel would emerge.

"I tried to mark Evenepoel as long as possible, told Bardet. But after three to four times, he took 10 meters. He surprised me at one point."

"We had four runners, we couldn't go on everything that moved either but hey ... it must be a mistake", for his part regretted Valentin Madouas.

And suddenly: the peloton

The Belgian left, and with no French in the small hunting groups, Thomas Voeckler thought that "it was screwed and that we were not even going to bring back a Top 5 or Top 8".

In fact, the final was particularly vague and, while we were waiting for isolated pursuers to complete the podium, a fairly large peloton suddenly tumbled at full speed, regulated on the line by Christophe Laporte, for a silver medal that emerged From nowhere.

The fact that headsets are banned at the World Championships has not helped dispel the fog.

"We didn't really expect it, it was a really strange final. When I crossed the line, I didn't really know where I was," commented Laporte, who we didn't have. seen from the race.

"I was instructed to be discreet. We tried to play on several fronts and I did my best to hang on. This silver medal has a special flavor because I did not expect it. In the last two laps, I really thought it was over," said the Varois.

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For Romain Bardet, himself vice-world champion in 2018, there is no doubt about it: "second was the best place we could get".

For the rest, France has a "super generation, with great guys", he rejoiced.

"We may have made a mistake or two, I have my share. But the guys were admirable, they believed in it until the end", also insisted Thomas Voeckler.

© 2022 AFP