Julian Alaphilippe has decided to give up competing in the road race for the Tokyo Games next August, "for personal reasons".
The French world champion, who will be a father for the first time in June, will line up for the Tour de France and should then focus on defending his world title at the end of September.
No Tokyo Olympics for Julian Alaphilippe!
The reigning world champion announced on Friday his choice to skip the Olympic road race "for personal reasons".
"It's a personal and well-considered decision," said the Frenchman, who leaves the national team orphaned for the meeting scheduled for July 24, just six days after the arrival in Paris of the Tour de France at the end of July.
Alaphilippe, who is due to be a father for the first time in June, added that he had set "end-of-season goals" and had to make choices.
First, the defense of his world title at the end of September in Belgium, although he did not mention it explicitly.
Gaudu and Bardet should be present
Regularly called in the blue jersey in recent years, 'Alaf' has also assured that he will be "very proud to wear the jersey of the France team for the next world championships". There is no doubt that the sentence will reassure, at least in this regard, the national coach Thomas Voeckler, who finds himself deprived of his best asset for the Olympics. Even if France can hope to field a competitive team in Japan, notably with David Gaudu and Romain Bardet.
But the Olympic race, won in 2016 by the Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, remains very uncertain.
Especially because of the very humid heat announced and the time difference to be overcome, for the riders leaving the Tour de France, much more than by the route, selective and typical puncheur / climber near Mount Fuji, and the number of riders limited to five for the strongest nations.
First defection of a favorite
The decision to give up the Olympics was taken "in agreement with the coach of the France team and my team Deceuninck", detailed Alaphilippe, who can thus devote himself fully to the Tour de France (June 26 to July 18), l flagship event of the cycling season. It is on the roads of the Tour that the world champion, winner for the third time in April of the Flèche Wallonne, has built most of his popularity: five stage successes since 2018 and seventeen days to wear the yellow jersey.
His defection, the first of a favorite for the Olympic online race, coincides with the extension of the state of emergency in Japan, faced with an upsurge in the coronavirus pandemic. A petition calling for the cancellation of the Olympics, which has collected more than 350,000 signatures, was handed over to local authorities in Tokyo on Friday. It should be submitted to the Japanese government. For Alaphilippe, 29 years old next month, the Olympic dream will therefore be by 2024, in the Paris region. With the risk of chewing for a long time his fall in the descent of Vista Chinesa which had cost him a medal, even the title, at the Rio Olympics in 2016.