Europe 1 with AFP 9:03 p.m., August 31, 2022
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe retired from the Tour of Spain on Wednesday after injuring his right shoulder in a crash on stage 11.
The French double world champion suffers from a collarbone injury and was taken on a stretcher to the nearest hospital.
Pursued by bad luck this season, Julian Alaphilippe found himself on the ground again on Wednesday in the 11th stage of the Vuelta, where a fall forced him to retire, less than a month from defending his double title at the Global in Australia.
The Quick-Step puncher slipped in a turn within the peloton 64 kilometers from the finish of the stage run between Alhama de Murcia and Cabo de Gata, in Andalusia.
Hit in the right collarbone, he was taken on a stretcher to the nearest hospital.
At the end of the afternoon, the Belgian team had not given any details on the state of health of its rider.
Many disappointments this season
This disappointment, less than a month before the world road championship on September 25 in Wollongong (Australia), adds to an already long list this season.
The 30-year-old Frenchman first crashed in the Strade Bianche in early March in Tuscany, then suffered from bronchitis which forced him to withdraw from Milan-Sanremo, one of his favorite races, and for the Tour of Flanders.
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It was on April 24 during Liège-Bastogne-Liège that he suffered the hardest blow of fate: an impressive fall and a terrible shock against a tree.
Assessment, a pneumothorax, two broken ribs and a fracture to a shoulder blade, which required a long hospitalization then a prolonged absence.
Returning to competition just before the Tour de France in the French Championship at the end of June, where he finished 13th in a race won by his teammate Florian Sénéchal, the rider had not ultimately been selected by his team for the Grande Boucle.
This was not the end of his troubles.
He then tested positive for Covid at the end of July at the Tour de Wallonie, after feeling "a little tired" when preparing for the Spanish loop.
In front several times on the Vuelta
"Definitely [...] A series of m ...", he commented at a press conference at the end of July to sum up his season, after being contaminated by the virus in Belgium, hiding neither his annoyance nor his fatalism.
On the roads of the Tour of Spain, we saw him regularly in front, notably leading the train of the peloton during the mountain stages last week to take his leader Remco Evenepoel in an armchair at the start of the last daily difficulties.
"When I see since the start of the season the shitty feelings I've had, then I'm happy to be able to do a good job in the Vuelta. It's going better and better", he assured Sunday after the 9th stage .
The Belgian praised his luxury teammate on Monday.
"I haven't seen many multiple world champions do things the way he did," the "little cannibal" said of Alaphilippe's work at Vuelta.
The disappointment of the Evenepoel red jersey
On Wednesday, the red jersey of the Vuelta did not hide his disappointment when he learned of his retirement: "It's sad on such a calm stage to lose Julian (Alaphilippe). It's a stupid fall. I hope that he's fine and that he's not in too much pain. I wish 'Loulou' the best".
"He was in great shape, but I have confidence in all my teammates for the coming weeks," he continued.
With Alaphilippe, Evenepoel, already deprived of Pieter Serry, tested positive for Covid on Sunday, loses a new teammate in the defense of his leader's red jersey.
The abandonment of the Frenchman is the sixth of the day in the Spanish loop, after the five withdrawals for positive Covid tests from Simon Yates (BikeExchange), Pavel Sivakov (Ineos), Roger Adria, Hector Carretero and Pau Miquel Delgado (Ken Pharma) .