“If I can take the jersey back, I won’t think it’s a burden,” warns Alaphilippe

Double world champion in 2020 and 2021, Julian Alaphilippe arrives in good shape for the Cycling Worlds in Zurich in Switzerland, whose men’s road race will be run this Sunday over 273 km punctuated by 17 climbs. And even if he has lost his former aura, the 32-year-old from Auvergne is still one of the outsiders to watch. At the RMC microphone, he says he is in any case ready to re-taste the flavor of the rainbow jersey.

Julian, another selection for the Worlds, the eighth of your career, the seventh in a row, and a great title to achieve, is this necessarily a goal that drives you and the entire French team?

Yes we will try, we are super motivated. We did the reconnaissance on Friday morning, it’s really a beautiful course, we have a great team. We are motivated to give our best, even if we know it won’t be easy. The state of mind is there, I think that physically everyone is in good shape and we can’t wait to give our all to have the best race possible.

Not easy, with the big favorites in particular, Pogacar, Evenepoel, Van Der Poel, etc. Do we still arrive here to win or do we play for the podium?

No, we’re here to try to win the race, that’s for sure. We know it will be hard, but it’s up to us to give the maximum, to do what we can with our means and to race the race we have to do. Quite simply, don’t follow them, don’t wait, we don’t want to have regrets. As Thomas Voeckler (the coach) said, he would prefer us to be 15th and to have given everything rather than to have remained in the wheels and to have had the desire to follow and not to have succeeded. There we can have regrets, but that will not be the case on Sunday because we will give our best.

Tell us why you enjoy the final 26.8km circuit here in Zurich so much…

I love it, because it requires all the qualities that a runner should have. It’s a tiring, technical, punchy circuit, with a slightly longer bump, not a lot of recovery parts in the end. It’s going to be a long race, almost 280 kilometers, so I loved the recognition. I hope we have a little luck weather-wise, but I can’t wait for Sunday.

Do you consider yourself in better shape than during the Olympic Games, where you finished 11th but suffered a bit from the race?

Yes, I feel fitter than at the Olympics. I think that at the Olympics I was good, but I certainly lacked a bit to play the leading roles. The fact that I had not done the Tour and my slightly different preparation played a role. I think I was starting to get back into shape at that point. I wasn’t bad either, but I mean I still suffered quite a bit from the race. Since the Olympics I have been feeling better and better, so I have been able to treat myself and reassure myself.

Does that promise great Julian on Sunday?

I don’t know, but in any case I’m motivated, that’s for sure, I’m going to give everything because you know my motivation and my state of mind for the Blues and I think that with the team on a course like that, really, we can have fun and give it our all, we’re going to do it, so I hope we’ll have a great day.

What has made the French team stack up to this level since 2018? point there medals at major championships? Is it a kind of magic initiated by coach Thomas Voeckler?

There is no magic, it’s just, I think, the fact of getting along well together and being in the quest to experience emotions that we know we can only experience in sacrificing ourselves, only by giving the best of ourselves for each other and I think that this is the state of mind that reigns in the French team and which gives us an advantage.

The world champion jersey still makes you dream?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. It was and will always remain for me the most beautiful jersey in cycling, so I had the chance to wear it for two years, but it remains the most beautiful jersey, so Sunday it’s the race to get it.

When you lost it in Australia in 2022, you were almost relieved to get rid of the burden…

Yes, it could have been a burden in the sense that it’s a jersey that we want to make shine. We know how much it weighs because it represents, as I said, so much in cycling, but I also had the opportunity and the obligation to carry it when I was almost at the bottom of the hole. There, he weighed more. There, it was a burden, but I think it’s part of a career to have more difficult times, even when being world champion. If I can take it again on Sunday, I’m not going to think it’s a burden.