Currently in recovery training with the Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl team in Calpe (Spain), Julian Alaphilippe revealed on Monday the outline of his program for the new season. Attacking the cobbled classics over the past two seasons, the double world champion will this time focus only on the Ardennes: the Flèche wallonne, which he has already won three times (2018, 2020, 2021), and especially Liège. -Bastogne-Liège, which continues to escape him (2nd in 2015 and in 2021, downgraded in 2020) while it is, by his own admission, “The race which (him) corresponds the most”.
“It’s a slightly more traditional program than in recent years, explains the runner. The goal is to arrive fresher at the start of my big goals. I want to make the best possible approach, not to throw myself into all the races to achieve the ideal preparation. It’s too difficult to be 100% on both the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But I’ll come back to the Flandrian classics, that’s for sure. I had too much fun doing these errands. It just won’t be for this year. “
February in France, March in Italy
Alaphilippe will start his season in France with the Tour de La Provence (February 10-13), where he finished 2nd overall last year, then the Drôme-Ardèche Buckles (February 26-27). He will then go to Italy to participate in the Strade Bianche (March 5), Tirreno-Adriatico (March 7-13) and the first Monument of the year, Milan-San Remo (March 19), which he won in 2019. (2nd in 2020). Barring an accident, he will continue with the Tour of the Basque Country (April 4-9) as a preparation for the Ardennes classics, la Flèche (April 20) and Liège (April 24).
After an altitude training course in May, the world champion will participate in the Critérium du Dauphiné (June 6-12), the French Championships (road race on June 26) then in the Grande Boucle (July 1-24). “There was no way I would miss the Tour with this jersey (rainbow), he emphasizes. The objective will be to seek stage victories because we do not have the team to make the general. If I find myself in a position where I am good, I will give the maximum, like in 2019, but I especially want to try to raise my arms. “
If he doesn’t think ” not yet “ at the next World Championships, scheduled for Woollongong (Australia) at the end of September, the outgoing double winner unsurprisingly explained that he will defend his title there no matter what. “I’ve been told a lot about the course with this bump at the end, but frankly, if it had been all flat, I would have had the same desire to be there to give the guys from the France team everything ‘they brought me these last two years’, he explains.