• Julian Alaphilippe extended for three years at Deceuninck - Quick-Step last week

  • Good news for the Frenchman in the perspective of one-day races

  • Less for the general public who would like to see him in the shoes of the first Frenchman to remodel the yellow jersey on the Champs from Hinault

And two false surprises in the space of a week for Julian Alaphilippe, winner on “his” Flèche Wallonne when we imagined him inside after a rather blah start to the monuments season. The other pseudo-twist concerns its extension at Deceuninck - Quick-Step until 2024, announced last week. “The logical thing to do, according to the world champion. At no time did the question arise of doing something else. There is a hint of a lie in there, but not that much, if we are to believe the information from a platoon agent. “Everyone has made films while to my knowledge, there have certainly been contacts with other teams, but less than other times. "

The supporters of the theory of departure had their reasons for believing it all the same.

On the one hand, and it is no secret that AG2R, with the arrival of Citroën in the adventure, had sights on Alaph for 2022. Two, Dave Brailsford (Ineos) is desperately trying to dredge the French public by finding a headliner tricolor to restore the blazon of fire-Sky, not necessarily in the odor of sanctity in our regions.

"Ineos, it would not have been silly for both camps, confirms our agent.

And then quit leaving, you might as well do it in a team that boxes in the same category.

Better, a team with whom he could have aimed for the Tour de France.

Deceuninck not cut for three week races

Because at the risk of disappointing the general public of the “Alaphilix”, making the choice to stay at DQS until he is 32 years old is almost to put aside his ambitions for the Tour, even if his team almost always does not. 'did not prevent finishing 5th in 2019, after wearing the yellow jersey for 14 days. But João Almeida's fourth place in the Giro 2020 under rather similar circumstances confirms the existence of a glass ceiling for the Belgian team over three weeks.

Steve Chainel, consultant for Eurosport: “Quick Step has enough quality to arrive on a grand tour with a rider capable of aiming for something in the general classification but without pressure, thinking that it will come if the stars are aligned, and after that we will see good »A respectable strategy although a little light against machines like Ineos and Jumbo, unless of course to be called Tadej Pogacar.

Let's say that this is the fault of the main quality of Quick-Step, that of giving free rein to the hyperactivity of an 8-year-old child of Julian Alaphilippe, who said it himself at the time of prolonging his contract: "I feel good here and I do what I do with immense pleasure".

Would he have enjoyed counting his 24-hour watts in the Ineos train until he crossed the yellow line on the Champs-Elysées?

Nothing is less certain, Chainel said.

“As much an Almeida, I agree that he would have won the Giro in this kind of team.

But Julian, the year he's been in yellow for a long time, is because he runs completely uninhibited scratching seconds where he can.

At Ineos or Jumbo, everything would have been calculated and he could never have done what he did that year.

"

Become a legend on monuments

Finally, the extension of the world champion at Deceuninck is the story of a choice: to continue on the highway of victories for a day to build his legend or to branch off towards an uncertain future to aim for a victory in the Tour de France. , at the risk of changing the way you run, favoring regularity over explosiveness.

“It would require losing his qualities as a finisher and puncher again,” confirms the consultant.

And today, we realize that it is his great quality in the middle of Van Aert, Pidcock, Van Aert.

Why focus on the Tour?

As good Frenchmen, obviously we are looking for a successor to Bernard Hinault, but this place will go to a young youngster who is arriving.

"

It is also good to remember that the path taken by the French is neither less easy nor less prestigious than aiming for a victory over three weeks, especially the way Chainel sees it. “He has time to build a track record around the five monuments. Because I think quite frankly he can. It would be incredible: Lombardy, Flanders, Roubaix… for me he can win them without problem. "

May the fiercest supporters of Alaphilippe's yellow dream be reassured nonetheless.

They will always be able to cling to the many "you never know" of their idol with each media release.

Because Julian Alaphilippe loves his audience too much to openly disappoint them and because, somewhere, he surely has too much faith in the unpredictability of the bike to be sure that he will never win the Big Loop.

At Deceuninck or elsewhere.

Sport

Flèche Wallonne: Splendid third victory for Julian Alaphilippe at the top of the wall of Huy

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Deceuninck - Quick-Step: Julian Alaphilippe returns to the Belgian team for three years

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