2024-01-11 11:05:00
At 31, the double world champion (2020, 2021) confirms that he will aim for stage victories on the Tour of Italy rather than serving as a teammate on the Grande Boucle to the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, which had revealed the day before the boss of his Soudal-Quick Step team, Patrick Lefevere.
“It’s not a non-selection and it’s not a punishment at all. Doing the Giro had been in my head for a while,” explains Alaphilippe, who has never taken part in the Tour of Italy.
Head to the Giro
“Between Australia, the classics and the Giro, I wanted a change,” summarizes the rider, who will launch his season with the Tour Down Under starting Friday in the Adelaide region (south of Australia). ).
“It was always special to miss the Tour but I am so happy with my goals, with a possible participation in the Paris Games in mind. It’s a very complete season, you have to make choices and stick to them,” assures Alaphilippe, who has scored six stage victories in the Tour and worn the yellow jersey for 18 days since the start of his career.
The Frenchman, at the end of his contract with Soudal-Quick Step at the end of the coming season, remains in two complicated years, marked in particular by his heavy fall in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April 2022.
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