Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Thursday November 7, 2024 at 12:02 p.m.
Recruit from the Swiss team Tudor, Julian Alaphilippe has joined an ambitious second division team, which can create a surprise.
A new era will begin for Julian Alaphilippe. After 11 seasons with the Quick-Step, he left the Belgian team, without being able to say goodbye at the Tour of Lombardy after having dislocated his shoulder during the world championships. Le Berrichon signed up with Tudor, a second-tier Swiss team whose owner is double Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara.
Tudor, which is not yet part of the 18 World Tour teams, is brimming with ambition, and has also recruited the promising Swiss rider Marc Hirschi (25 years old), one of Tadej Pogacar's lieutenants at the UAE Team Emirates and who ended the season like a cannonball. “As a Swiss, it's something special to race in a Swiss team. I'm 25 years old, so it's time to take on my leadership role and see how far I can go,” he said. he confided when his arrival was made official.
“An XXL recruitment”
And his duo with the experienced Frenchman, who will celebrate his 33rd birthday in June, can create sparks according to the former rider, team boss and now ex-consultant Cyrille Guimard, interviewed by Cyclism'Actu on the transfer window , and the transfer that marked him the most. “I think we don't talk about it a lot, but it's that of Julian Alaphilippe at Tudor. He's going to a team that's not WorldTour, accompanied by Marc Hirschi, who was the best rider on both last months of the season, it's an interesting transfer window, they are far from the WorldTour, but they will try to go there and have made an XXL recruitment and that seems very interesting to me. “Druid.”
It now remains to be seen whether this will be confirmed in competition, for this team which dreams of taking part in the next Tour de France. Which is far from won.
