Reassuring about his ability to perform again at a high level during the last Giro, and then including in the French championship for his return race, Julian Alaphilippe will have to decide on his future in the coming weeks. With, probably, a little more choice…
At the start of the season, the future of Julian Alaphilippe seemed very bleak, the French rider sometimes even suggesting between the lines that he could end his career at the end of the year, at the end of his contract with the Soudal-Quickstep. Tired of being systematically called into question by your boss Patrick Lefévère, who for two years had been pointing out his lack of results compared to his salary, and who this time had added remarks on his seriousness outside of racing, the double world champion was also, and above all, exhausted from fighting in vain to regain his best level, which he was unable to approach due to lack of consistency in his work due to falls or illness. His classics campaign had added a new stone to the building, the French champion being diminished by a knee injury following his fall at the Strade Bianche.
“I hope I can sit down with him again”
More Alaphilippe is not the type to give up like that. Once again, the Frenchman set off again with a view to Giroand this time everything changed. Not only did he win a stage at the end of a legendary raid that only the greats manage to accomplish, but his presence throughout the three weeks in the tough battles of the Giro proved that he was now truly close to returning to his best level. Even before the Tour of Italy, aware that his champion was not giving up, Patrick Lefévère had also opened the door to an extension at Soudal-Quickstepwhich seemed unthinkable a few weeks earlier: “ Perhaps for him, the time has come for a new challenge, but there always needs to be two at the table. I don’t know, but from what the CEO of the team told me, his agent said he wanted to talk to us. As far as I know, talking costs nothing. The times are changing. Maybe he needs to look elsewhere, but I really don’t think that’s what he wants. I really think he wants to stay, but I don’t want to say more because as soon as I say something, it’s misinterpreted. Julian is part of the family ” A few weeks later, the speech of the boss of the Soudal-Quickstep expressed the same desire to share the adventure, but it was clearly weighed down by the financial question: ” His agent Dries Smets has once again pushed for a new conversation. No idea whether it is out of politeness or a sincere interest in staying. Because the Giro has also changed Julian’s market situation. Above all, I hope to be able to sit down with him again. Face to face, without an intermediary and without a negotiation agenda on my part. Julian has been with us since he was seventeen. I’m not going to call him a son, but it’s not much different. What’s done is done. I said what I said. But I want to make sure that none of this remains ».
Are the prices too high for him to continue with Soudal-Quickstep?
Held a few days after the Girothe words of the boss of the Soudal-Quickstep provide an important key to the future of the double world champion. His victory in Italy has indeed fatally changed the financial situation, providing proof thatAlaphilippe could win again at the highest level. Logically, the Frenchman’s value has risen on the market, to the point of making his extension at Soudal-Quickstep. In any case, this is what we can decode from the words of Lefévère. As much as the latter can validate the idea of an extension ofAlaphilippeas much as he does not want to find himself stuck again in a salary escalation. Lefévère has probably set his price for the contract of his Frenchman and if it does not fit with his wishes or what he has elsewhere, the boss of the Belgian formation has made it clear that he will not move, leaving the ball in the hands ofAlaphilippe : is he ready to lower his salary to the fixed level to extend? Or not ? The whole question is there today.
Total Energies, Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, Tudor, etc.
And Alaphilippe must leave, where is it to go? In France, three teams have clearly taken up positions to recover it. Total Energieswho has been in the running for two years, is the first. Jean-René Bernaudeau praises to the French champion the virtues of a team centered on people and the collective, elements likely to convince him. Two other French teams seem to be in the running, the Cofidis and especially Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, which offers by far the toughest sporting challenge. But with the victory in Giro, it appears clear that other foreign groups have reared their heads. The Swiss team Tudor, with strong ambitions for the coming years, would thus have come into contact with the Frenchman’s agent. One thing is sure, Alaphilippe will now quickly decide, at the latest after the Olympics.
