Hello again, Loulou. Julian Alaphilippe, nicknamed Loulou by his relatives, had not driven in competition on a French road since the end of the last Tour de France where his fourteen days in yellow and his two stage successes had passed him from the status of friendly runner to that of national hero. The hero of July returns to France this Saturday by lining up on the Classic of the Ardèche, the first part of the diptych of the Boucles Drôme Ardèche, with the course cut out for him a week from Paris-Nice (March 8-15).
Since the start of the season, Alaphilippe has only competed in races in South America, like last year. In 2019, he won the Tour of San Juan (Argentina) where he gave up, ill, this year. At the Tour of Colombia, he then passed close to success on the 4th stage by finishing 3rd.
It is therefore a Julian Alaphilippe with a record still virgin this season that the Ardèche spectators will discover. But it is possible that they will applaud him on the final podium. The course seems indeed perfectly cut for him: after more than four hours of roller coasters around Guilherand-Granges, the Val d'Enfer coast (1.7 km at 9.3%), which takes the runners to six kilometers of the finish, everything is from the ideal launching pad for Alaphilippe if he wants to repeat the coup d'Épernay, the scene of his first stage victory on the Great Loop 2019.
But the competition will be tough: the Trek duo, Vicenzo Nibali and Bauke Mollema, last winner of the Tour of Lombardy, but also on the French side, the national champion Warren Barguil, Lilian Calmejane, to whom these two races have succeeded in the past ( Drôme 2018 and Ardèche 2019), Pierre Latour or Guillaume Martin.
Romain Bardet, in leg with his second place on the Tour du Var and the Alpes-Maritimes behind Nairo Quintana, will only compete in the Drôme Classic on Sunday, due to the birth of his son, Angus, midweek.