Julian Alaphilippe at Spanish time.
After four summers leading the Tour de France, the tricolor rider will swap his Julytist shorts for those of an Augustian attacking the Tour of Spain, the start of which is given this Friday in Utrecht (Netherlands).
The French will be one of the attractions of a Vuelta which had not counted a world champion on the starting line since the local Alejandro Valverde, in 2019.
Aligning in Spain was obviously not the original idea of the double world champion, whose objective was to shine again on his national roads with his iridescent jersey.
Alas, his violent fall during Liège-Bastogne-Liège (April 24) reshuffled the cards, condemning the favorite rider of the French to draw a line under the Grande Boucle.
Against bad luck with a good heart, he will therefore play for stage victories on the Iberian roads.
“He always wants to raise his arms, it's his engine, which makes him move forward and bounce back”,
assures Franck Alaphilippe…
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