Can Alaphilippe win the Tour of Flanders on his first try?

Julian Alaphilippe won on the Flèche Brabançonne -

When Julian Alaphilippe puts on a swimsuit, it's rarely to go for a dip.

Even more when it's rainbow.

On Sunday, our French world champion will line up for the first time in his career on the terrible Tour of Flanders, without anyone knowing too much what he sees himself doing there.

But we know him too well to believe it when he whispered in the ear of the Belgian media that he only came to the Ronde to "take a look" and that he begged them "not to make him a favorite. Of the race.

Two-three stats before getting in the bath: you have to go back to 1982 and the Belgian René Martens to find traces of a rookie winner in the Belgian classic.

Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellera, six victories between them in the modern era, made the figuration three editions before playing the leading roles.

Conversely, in the more recent past, Benoot (5th in 2015) and Asgreen (2nd year in 2019) had won for their first.

Yes, but they had bled the Flandrian mountains a bunch of times before they turned pros.

Despite his training at QuickStep, Alaphilippe has never really tasted Patenberg, Taienberg or Vieux-Quaremont.

He just made two recognitions this week.

Enough to hope for anything?

Spontaneously, I would have a tendency to say no, answers Anthony Geslin, eight Tour of Flanders on the clock between 2005 and 2012. It's a race which is so specific, so physically hard that if we haven't done it several times and that one is not prepared psychologically, it is complicated to apprehend.

There are cobblestones, mountains, cobblestone mountains, wind, rain… It is a race where the placement is very important and therefore to have knowledge of the terrain, to have lived it several times to be there. comfortable, knowing by heart the sequence of mountains.

"

He himself remembers his first.

“I was completely lost, he says.

At one point it rubs, at another nobody rolls, I wondered where I was.

In short, all this corresponds rather well to the state of mind in which Alaphilippe arrives, despite his recent victory on the Flèche Brabançonne, whose climbs are a little like those of the Ronde.

“Just because you're going to have fun on some cobbles doesn't mean you'll win the Tour of Flanders.

It's hard enough for the runners who have done it five or six times.

I will of course have an important role to play in the team, but I will not be seen as the rider who must win.

It's impossible for me to say if I will have the physical qualities to shine in the final ”.

"It's nervous, that's what he likes"

OK for the start, but we will still allow ourselves to “call” his bluff on his last sentence.

Best puncher in the world and in great shape, Julian Alaphilippe has on paper all the qualities to shine in this kind of races.

“Physically, he's very strong and long distance isn't a problem for him,” describes Anthony Geslin.

It is super resistant to lactic acid and it can be full on efforts of 2 or 3 minutes which correspond to the difficulties of the Round.

As soon as it goes up, he can make the difference.

With a little specificity: in the end, the mountains follow one another and with the cobblestones, you can't inject them like a dancer, as he is used to doing on asphalt.

"

This is why if the former FDJ rider imagines Alaphilippe without any problem being involved at the end of the race, he does not really see how he could let go of the pedal - as he did at the Worlds - the specialists like Van Aert or Van der Poel, with a more powerful profile than him.

But for the rest, don't worry.

Franck Alaphilippe, his cousin and trainer, recently told Eurosport to feel the case.

“In Flanders, there is movement, you have to take a position, it's nervous.

It's for him, that's what he loves ”.

And above all, above all, if Alaphilippe can suffer from his inexperience, his team is the best in this kind of races.

Geslin:

He will be supported by runners who know all the roads like the back of their hands.

He will be a little penalized by certain passages that he will not master, by this bump that he will attack too hard at the foot, but all that will be fulfilled by his physique and a team that will put him on the small onions throughout the race.

They'll take the handle and protect it the whole race.

"

Until the moment when he blows up everything?

Impossible to say as the race will depend on the strategy of the Deceuninck, who field as many riders as potential winners.

But it's hard to imagine a race where Alaphilippe doesn't attack, it's not really his style.

"He can blast the race from afar and blow it up in the service of his team," Geslin thinks.

Undoubtedly what Alaphilippe implied by evoking "the important role without being the guy who must win" that he would have to play in the race.

A way of thanking his teammates for having worked all year for him.

Or a way to take the pressure off?

“I'm curious, but there won't be more stress or pressure.

I have already more than reached my goals for the season.

"Geslin concludes:" Whatever happens, it will weigh on the race.

If only psychologically.

The aura of the rainbow jersey.

Sport

Cycling World Championships: Julian Alaphilippe finally on the roof of the world

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