He will not say, like Napoleon on his return from Elba in March 1815, addressing the thousand men who accompanied him: "If I cross Sisteron, no one will stop me as far as Paris".
He doesn't have to spend a hundred days in the shoes of an emperor either.
A few will suffice in her yellow finery.
But how many?
Julian Alaphilippe, who brings down the citadels one after the other, pedal to the panache, and hypnotizes the podiums with his black eyes, will he keep the controls of the peloton this Tuesday afternoon on the gentle climb to Orcières Merlette ?
And can it, in this case, absorb the Massif Central, Thursday and the Pyrenees, next weekend?
To redo the coup of 2019 in short?
“I will see from day to day, slips the French hero, after adding a sixteenth yellow jersey to his collection, the second this year after taking power in Nice on Sunday.
I'll give it my all because it's a source of pride, but now it's just a bonus.
"
"Difficult to judge your level"
At 28, the Deceuninck - Quick Step rider, who was riding in Bonaparte's footsteps on Monday, is seriously starting to scare off the competition in this 2020 Tour. “He can even win at Orcières, it's an finish that suits him perfectly. , loose Guillaume Martin, the climber of Cofidis.
We saw what he showed last year, including in the mountains.
I don't worry about him.
"
Bernard Thévenet, whose reign in yellow (16 days between 1975 and 1977) risks being exceeded, is of the same opinion: “He can beat me and I wish it.
He will keep the jersey until the Pyrenees.
As long as we are not on days with two or three passes, he will not lose it.
It's difficult to judge its level compared to last year.
Is he ascending or already at the top?
It is complicated to detect because we lack benchmarks with the interruption due to the coronavirus.
"
PODCAST. Alaphilippe, a Tour in the name of the father
Under the citadel of Sisteron, Julian Alaphilippe refuses to ask questions.
"I recognized the stages in the Alps in the third week, it will be hard to go yellow to Paris," he confined himself to repeating.
A little bit of bluff?
Jean-François Bernard, yellow jersey in 1987, thinks so: “Contrary to what he said, he prepared his case very well.
So he is capable of anything.
He just has one problem.
All the contenders for victory are 17 seconds behind.
A simple burst at the end of the ascent on an attack between leaders and he can jump.
We said the same thing a little over a year ago.
And he had lasted fourteen days.