Interview
renchman Julian Alaphilippe
runs his hand along the top tube
of his team-issue Quick Step
Floors Specialized before climbing aboard
for the last race of the season in China.
He is now one of the team’s stars, but not
so long ago he struggled to save money
even to afford a simple bike, let alone the
superbike he now races to Monument
podiums and Grand Tour stage wins.
“My fi rst race was when I was 13 and
that was a big step because I come from
nothing,” the 25-year-old from the small
village of Montluçon in central France
tells CW. “My parents did not have a lot
of money to buy a bike. Now, I don’t have
to pay for my bikes but I really remember
having to pay for everything and that’s
something you’ll never forget. I remember
being with my father in the car going
to that race thinking how important it
would be for me to win.” He needed those
winnings to buy equipment.
He describes his upbringing as
“modest”; his father was a musician
and his mother stayed at home to look
after him and his two brothers. “I was
always on the bike when I was young
and I just began to do some races and
everything came along quickly. Honestly,
I only began to think about cycling and
becoming a professional when I was at
Continental level,” he recalls.
That realisation happened while
Alaphilippe was racing for the Armée de
Terre team — where his younger brother
Bryan, “who sprints better with his big
thighs”, also raced up until the team’s
collapse at the end of this year.
But it was Quick Step Floors team
manager Patrick Lefevere who broughtJulian Alaphilippe has emerged as France’s
best hope of a Monument win, but his
journey to the top level hasn’t been easy
From humble
beginnings
Gregor BrownPhoto: Yuzuru Sunada
the Frenchman to the top level of the
sport. He put faith in Alaphilippe early
on after his promising results in cyclo-
cross, including second in the Junior
World Championships in 2010, and on
the road. Lafevere signed him from the
Armée de Terre team and developed the
Frenchman in the Etixx-iHNed team for
one year (2013) before he stepped up to
the WorldTour squad. Alaphilippe adds,
“Everything was new for me. It was the
fi rst time I had spoken English with the
other people in my team and I discovered
many new races.”
Alaphilippe’s second places at Liège-
Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne in
2015, when he was still only 22 years old,
put him on everyone’s radar. The Liège
result was especially impressive given
the Monument’s distance of over 250km
and he was only beaten by Alejandro
Valverde, 12 years his senior. The
following year he would go on to prove
that result was no fl uke, climbing free of
his rivals at the Tour of California above
Santa Barbara, winning the queen stage
and paving the way for overall victory.
This year he made further progress
ripping down the iconic Via Roma
to fi nish third behind winner Michał
Kwiatkowski (Sky) and Peter Sagan
(Bora-Hansgrohe) in Milan-San Remo;
climbing ahead of his companions to
win a summit fi nish stage of the Vuelta a
España; and very nearly chasing down a
lone Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) at
Il Lombardia. Added to his 2015 second
place in Liège and a last-minute attempt
to upset the sprinters in the World
Championships this year, he now stands
out as France’s best one-day race talent.
Despite this level of success in his
young career, Alaphilippe has remained28 | December 7, 2017 | Cycling Weekly