Julian Alaphilippe

Julian Alaphilippe

Alaphilippe in 2015
Personal information
Born (1992-06-11) 11 June 1992
Saint-Amand-Montrond, France
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight 62 kg (137 lb)
Team information
Current team Etixx-Quick Step
Discipline Road, cyclo-cross
Role Rider
Rider type Puncheur
Amateur team(s)
2012 Armée de Terre
Professional team(s)
2013 Etixx-IHNed
2014– Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Major wins

Stage races

Tour of California (2016)
Infobox last updated on
22 May 2016

Julian Alaphilippe (born 11 June 1992 in Saint-Amand-Montrond) is a French road cyclist and cyclocross racer. He currently rides for the team Etixx-Quick Step.[1] He is the brother of racing cyclist Bryan Alaphilippe.[2]

Career

2014

Alaphilippe joined Omega Pharma-Quick Step in 2014. He obtained his first podium on the first stage of the Volta a Catalunya. He also was second in the fifth stage.[1] Alaphilippe scored his first victory as a neo-pro in Stage 4 of Tour de l'Ain where he showed his explosiveness in an uphill finish ahead of Dan Martin.[3] His best World Tour result of the year was a fifth-place finish in the GP Ouest-France.

2015

Alaphilippe (left) on the podium of the 2015 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, along with Alejandro Valverde (centre) and Joaquim Rodríguez

2015 was a breakthrough year for Alaphilippe. He acted as a supporter role in the Ardennes classics to help his teammate, the reigning world champion Michał Kwiatkowski, but surprisingly finished 7th in the Amstel Gold Race behind winner Kwiatkowski. In La Flèche Wallonne, his first time participating in the race, he continued to support Kwiatkowski but found his teammate too far behind at a crucial juncture. His team director told him to go for the win and he finished second after three-time winner Alejandro Valverde.[4] The scenario repeated itself at Liège–Bastogne–Liège a few days later when Alaphilippe finished 2nd in his La Doyenne debut, again behind Valverde.[5] In doing so, the 22-year-old realized the best French performance on this classic since 1998, when Laurent Jalabert finished second.[6]

After those performances and a string of podium finishes in the Tour de Romandie, Alaphilippe was, on May 4, granted a contract extension for two more years, until the end of 2017.[7] Later in the month he won the queen stage of the Tour of California and took over the lead in the general classification, 2 seconds ahead of Peter Sagan.[8] However, he lost the overall eventually to Sagan by just 3 seconds in the last stage due to the time bonuses in a flat sprint.[9] In the later part of the summer, he finished eighth in the Clásica de San Sebastián, finishing in the lead group behind the winner, Adam Yates. He subsequently finished tenth overall in the Eneco Tour, which included a stage that used many of the Ardennes classics roads.[10] His form was dropped significantly near the end of the year, including a DNF in the Road World Championships. He was later diagnosed with mononucleosis. The disease led to extreme fatigue, rendering him unable to maintain his top performance and marking the end of his season.[11]

2016

In April, Alaphilippe placed 2nd at the La Flèche Wallonne for the second year in a row. He then earned his biggest victory so far at the Tour of California, when he won a stage and the overall. The lead was taken on stage 3 when he attacked on an HC climb with less than one kilometer left. His form continued in Critérium du Dauphiné which he finished 6th overall and 1st in the young rider classification. It was also his first white jersey in UCI World Tour races.[12] In late June, he was named in the start list for the Tour de France.[13] During the Tour de France, he held the young rider classification from stages 2–6 and won the combativity award on stage 16.

Alaphilippe was selected to represent his nation at the Olympics men's road race and Olympic men's road time trial.[14] During the road race and being one of the pre-race favorites, he caught up with the leading group of cyclists on the final climb of Vista Chinesa, but his crash on the descent hindered him from joining the final attack launched by Greg Van Avermaet and Jakob Fuglsang to catch the sole leader Rafał Majka before the finish line. Alaphilippe eventually finished the road race in fourth position, 22 seconds behind the winner Van Avermaet.[15][16]Alaphilippe finished in 32nd position in the Olympic men's road time trial.

Career achievements

Major results

2012
2nd Overall Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay
1st Youth classification
1st Stage 2
2013
Tour de l'Avenir
1st Points classification
1st Stage 7
1st Grand Prix Südkärnten[1]
1st Stage 3 Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23
4th European Road Championships U23
5th Overall Tour de Bretagne
1st Stage 4
8th Overall Course de la Paix U23
9th UCI World Under-23 Road Race Championships
10th Grand Prix Kralovehradeckeho kraje
2014
3rd RideLondon–Surrey Classic
4th Overall Tour de l'Ain
1st Points classification
1st Youth classification
1st Stage 4
5th GP Ouest-France
2015
2nd Overall Tour of California
1st Youth classification
1st Stage 7
2nd La Flèche Wallonne
2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
5th National Road Race Championships
7th Amstel Gold Race
8th Clásica de San Sebastián
10th Overall Eneco Tour
2016
1st Overall Tour of California
1st Stage 3
2nd European Road Race Championships
2nd La Flèche Wallonne
4th Road Race, Olympic Games
5th National Road Race Championships
6th Amstel Gold Race
6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné
1st Youth classification
8th Brabantse Pijl
10th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
Tour de France
Held after Stages 2–6
Combativity award Stage 16

Classics Results Timeline

This chart shows Alaphilippe progress in five monuments and the classics he mostly participated in.

Year Milan–San Remo Tour of Flanders Paris–Roubaix Amstel Gold Race La Flèche Wallonne Liège–Bastogne–Liège Clásica de San Sebastián Paris–Tours Giro di Lombardia Road World Championships
2014 - - - DNF - - DNF - DNF -
2015 - - - 7th 2nd 2nd 8th - - DNF
2016 - - - 6th 2nd 23rd -

DNF = Did not finish; - = Did not compete

Grand Tour General Classification Results Timeline

Grand Tour 2016
Pink jersey Giro
Yellow jersey Tour 41
red jersey Vuelta

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Julian Alaphilippe » Omega Pharma – Quick-Step". Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  2. "Julian Alaphilippe change de costume" [Julian Alaphilippe changes costume]. La Dépêche du Midi (in French). 17 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  3. "Alaphilippe Wins First Pro Race of Career!". Cyclingnews.com. OPQS Official. 16 August 2014. Archived from the original on 16 March 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  4. Alasdair Fotheringham (23 April 2015). "Alaphilippe fends off Flèche veterans for notable second place". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  5. Nigel Wynn (26 April 2015). "Alejandro Valverde wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2015". Cycling Weekly. IPC Media Sports & Leisure network. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  6. Alasdair Fotheringham (26 April 2015). "Alaphilippe takes France's best Liège-Bastogne-Liège result since 1998". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  7. "Alaphilippe signs contract extension with Etixx-QuickStep". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. 4 May 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  8. "Tour of California: Alaphilippe wins on Mt. Baldy". Cycling News. May 22, 2015.
  9. "Sagan wins Tour of California on time bonus". Cycling News. May 18, 2015.
  10. "Julian Alaphilippe". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  11. "Alaphilippe ends breakthrough season with mononucleosis". Cycling News. Oct 19, 2015.
  12. Stephen Farrand (12 June 2015). "Criterium du Dauphine 2016: Stage 7 Results". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  13. "2016 > 103rd Tour de France > Startlist". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  14. "France announce men's Olympic road team". Cyclingnews. 14 July 2016.
  15. "Jeux Olympiques : Julian Alaphilippe plombé par une chute.". L'Équipe. 6 Aug 2016.
  16. "Jeux Olympiques : Van Avermaet décroche la médaille d'or, Julian Alaphilippe 4e". L'Équipe. 6 Aug 2016.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julian Alaphilippe.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.