La Vuelta – Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) falls and retires on the 11th stage

One more… After the Strade Bianche but especially Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Julian Alaphilippe experienced another significant crash on the 11th stage of the Vuelta 2022. This ended 64 kilometers from the finish in Cabo de Gata in a seemingly innocuous bend. Hit in the collarbone, the reigning double world champion never got up and it was once again in an ambulance that he left a race after a rotten year. Worse, the world championship should probably be run without him.

There was a lot going on in Julian Alaphilippe’s Tour of Spain 2022. First the hope that bad luck will leave him alone (he will come back…), then the idea that it could allow him to shine again at high level, four months after the incident in Liège-Bastogne-Liège which had caused fear for his life, finally the devotion to his leader and friend, Remco Evenepoel. If by chance the Belgian should actually win his first grand tour, his roommate will not be there to celebrate with him.

The world treble has moved away

If Patrick Lefevere had explained that he did not pay Alaphilippe to prepare for the Worlds, he had nothing to blame him for ten days of racing. In bad shape at the very start of the race, the Frenchman had seriously increased in power to become Evenepoel’s watchdog to filter out the candidates for the breakaways in the mountains. This was, paradoxically, an ideal preparation for the world championships which will be held in Australia (September 25) and whose course could allow to believe in an incredible hat-trick for Alaphilippe.

Given the first aid administered to the Frenchman from the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, his collarbone was affected and probably simply fractured. If this injury should not end his season, it completely rules out, or almost, the possibility of seeing him lead the French team to Wollongong. He will therefore “get rid” of this world champion jersey, a real curse for him.