Insufficiently recovered from his fall last May, the double French world champion will not participate in the Tour de France 2022.
The verdict fell this Monday noon, the day after the French Cycling Championships in which he had taken part. Julian Alaphilippe will not participate in the 109e edition of the Tour de France which will start on Friday from Copenhagen, Denmark. The Quick Step formation will therefore be led by Fabio Jakobsen, without the emblematic French puncher, who still considers himself out of form to take part in the Grande Boucle.
A race against time to recover
Alaphilippe had suffered a very heavy fall two months ago in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Suffering from a hemopneumothorax and multiple fractures of the ribs and a scapula, the double world champion had embarked on a race against the clock to be restored before the big meeting of the year.
Still out of competition
The French Championships, played on Sunday and which he finished in the peloton, were his great return to competition. His performance had been rather reassuring around Cholet over a course of 240 km. Alaphilippe had even done a remarkable job to allow Florian Sénéchal, his teammate, to be crowned. “I really came to see where I was, to make an effort. I can’t say I had a lot of fun but I was better than I thought so I’m happy“, had dropped the now thirty-something without much enthusiasm at the end of this day.
Alaphilippe preferred to play the card of caution rather than setting off on the 2022 course and its 3346.5 km with a single day of competition only in the legs. A choice of reason which will allow the best French runner to prepare well for the end of the season but which will inevitably leave the public a little orphan on the sides of the roads, in Denmark, but especially in France.
