Julian Alaphilippe retained his title of world cycling champion on Sunday in Louvain, in Flandria.
The 29-year-old Frenchman won solo after a decisive attack 17 kilometers from the finish.
He is the first Frenchman to win two titles since the first world championship in 1927.
A year ago, on September 27, 2020, Julian Alaphilippe put an end to twenty-three years of French scarcity at the world road cycling championship, in Imola (Italy), and became the ninth Frenchman to wear the rainbow jersey. - world champion sky.
Back in pictures on the victorious French.
Director:
Olivier JUSZCZAK
Julian Alaphilippe retained his title of world cycling champion on Sunday in Louvain, in Flandria.
The 29-year-old Frenchman won solo after a decisive attack 17 kilometers from the finish.
He is the first French to conquer two titles since the first world championship in 1927. And that deserves a big kiss to his partner Marion Rousse!
Find, in pictures, the nine French world champions in the history of road cycling.
Director:
Olivier JUSZCZAK
The first Frenchman to win the road cycling world championship was Georges Speicher in 1933, in Monthéry, France.
Georges Speicher is 5 minutes ahead of his compatriot Antonin Magne.
Three years later, in 1936, it was Antonin Magne's turn to become world champion, in Bern (Switzerland).
We then have to wait twenty-one years to see again a Frenchman with the rainbow jersey of world champion.
This is Louison Bobet, in 1954, in Solingen (Germany).
He was encouraged here by his wife Christiane during the 11th stage of the Tour de France between Marseille and Avignon, July 18, 1955. He won this stage and won the competition for the third consecutive time after 1953 and 1954, on July 23 in Paris .
Five years after Louison Bobet, André Darrigade became world champion in Zandvoort (Netherlands) in 1959.
In 1962, Jean Stablinski became the fifth Frenchman to wear the rainbow jersey, in Salo (Italy).
Eighteen years later, on August 31, 1980, the Frenchman Bernard Hinault let go of his rivals in the Domancy coast, in Sallanches (Haute-Savoie), during the world road championship.
At 25, the French prodigy became world champion.
During the following season, in 1981, he did honor to his rainbow jersey by winning in particular the Amstel Gold Race, Paris-Roubaix, the criterium of Dauphiné-Libéré and the Tour de France.
On August 28, 1994, Frenchman Luc Leblanc raised his arms at the finish of the world road championship in Agrigento in Sicily (Italy).
He becomes the seventh Frenchman to wear the rainbow jersey, ahead of Italian Claudio Chiappucci, second, and Richard Virenque, third, also a member of the France team.
Three years later, Laurent Brochard took advantage of a breakaway and settled the sprint in front of the Danish Bo Hamburger (on the right), and the Dutchman Léon Van Bon (on the left), on October 12, 1997, in Saint-Sébastien (Spain).
He puts on the rainbow jersey and a Basque beret!
It's time to celebrate in Champagne with his compatriot Laurent Jalabert, world champion in the time trial, on October 12, 1997, in the hotel of the French team, in Hendaye.
Twenty-three years later, Julian Alaphilippe stands on the pedals and turns around as if to say goodbye to his opponents in the last difficulty of the world championship, in Imola (Italy), on September 27, 2020.
He managed to keep his lead of a few seconds in the last ten kilometers and became the ninth French road cycling world champion.
He can pose proudly with this rainbow swimsuit that he will wear for a year.
Julian Alaphilippe has just made “the dream of his career” come true by putting an end to twenty-three years of French scarcity at the world road cycling championship.
A year later, in Leuven (Belgium), on Sunday September 26, 2021, following a mad race by the whole of the France team, Julian Alaphilippe once again stands on his pedals and places an attack decisive 17 kilometers from the finish.
He resisted the return of his opponents to the finish line and inflicted a major defeat on the Belgian national team who had bet everything on the big favorite, Wout van Aert.
On arrival, he was congratulated by his partner Marion Rousse as well as by the entire France team.
Julian Alaphilippe's victory is a rare feat because only seven runners have won a world title two years in a row since the first edition in 1927. He is the first Frenchman to achieve this performance.
Only one, Slovak sprinter Peter Sagan, has kept the rainbow jersey for three consecutive seasons.
"Never two without three, you never know", commented Julian Alaphilippe at the microphone of France TV.
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