A few days before the start of the great Ardennes week marked by the Amstel Gold Race-Fleche Walloon-Liège Bastogne Liège, Is Julian Alaphilippe able to hope for a result? Asked about the prospects of the double world champion, Bernard Hinault draws up a terrible observation.
While appearing on the right track in the month of March, Julian Alaphilippe seems to mark the step at a time when he was expected at his best level to fight with tenors in the Flanderian and Ardennes classics. Decreased by a disease having deprived him of Flanders Tour, the double world champion did not show himself up to his advantage during the Tour of the Basque Country, appearing exceeded in high intensity moments.
He appeared behind the Tour of the Basque Country
Can we consider that he finds his best sensations during the Ardennes week, marked by the Amsl Gold Race-Fleche Walloon-Liège Liège, which could let him hope for a podium? Given what he has demonstrated for two years, where he rarely appeared at a level comparable to that of his best years, the hypothesis appears unlikely. His poor performance in the turn of the Basque Country would really have to be linked to his illness, which would have masked a real rise in power, so that we find great Alaphilippe On the Ardennes roads.
“Alaphilippe may have become a road captain for the young people of his team”
Asked about the subject at the microphone of cyclismactu.net During the announcement of the world championships in Domancy in 2027, Bernard Hinaultfive -time winner of the Tour de France, was rather pessimistic, drawing an uncompromising observation on the prospects of the tricolor champion: ” How do I see Julian Alaphilippe today? We’ll see. He is present, he fights, he tries, but he has no results. He helps his teammates, it may have become a road captain for the young people of his team ». Au-Travers of the words of the former winner of Paris-Roubaix and Liège Bastogne Liège, we understand that he no longer believes in a return of Julian Alaphilippe At a level allowing him to envisage a victory in a great classic.
