Cycling. Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders… Alaphilippe reveals his first objectives for 2023
Julian Alaphilippe is determined to close the chapter of his nightmarish year 2022, between falls, injuries and illnesses. Even if 2023 did not order under the best auspices…
Sick, and wearing an FFP2 mask on his nose, the 30-year-old Frenchman only made a brief appearance this Friday during the official presentation of his team, Soudal Quick Step, in La Panne (Belgium) .
Start of the season in Spain
He also did not linger at a press conference to comment on his 2023 objectives. These will nevertheless be numerous, as if he needed to multiply the chances of shining to forget his past setbacks.
Alaphilippe will thus start smoothly, aligning himself with the races of the Challenge de Mallorca (January 25 to 29). We will then see him in France, during the Boucles Drôme Ardèche (February 25 and 26).
He wants to play the winner in the round
To ward off fate, he will continue with the Strade Bianche (March 4), where his spectacular “sun” last year had sounded the beginning of his troubles. Still in Italy, Alaphilippe will participate in Tirreno-Adriatico (March 5-12) rather than Paris-Nice, before returning to Milan-San Remo (March 18), where he had to give up in 2022 due to bronchitis. .
I have a great schedule and I hope to be there at every race, helping the team and getting some wins.
Then will come his “first big target”, the Tour of Flanders. In the running for victory in 2020 before having bad luck, decisive in the triumph of his teammate Kasper Asgreen in 2021, the double world champion (2020, 2021) wants to play the leading roles again in the “Round”. “It’s a race that I love and I hope to do good there,” said the Frenchman, quoted in a press release from his team.
In competition with Evenepoel on the Doyenne?
Its “official” calendar stops at the Tour of Flanders. If Alaphilippe will certainly want to reconnect with the Tour de France, it remains to be seen what role his training will give him on the Ardennes (Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold Race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège), his favorite ground.
He must, in fact, deal with the presence of the one who succeeded him on the list of winners of the Worlds, Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian prodigy, who will line up for the Tour of Italy (May 6 to 28), notably has a crown to defend in Liège-Bastogne-Liège… which Alaphilippe has always dreamed of.