Expected at the start of the Amstel Gold Race, Julian Alaphilippe finds a race he saw him escape in 2019 on a big communication error.
A week after having had to admit defeated against Mathieu Van der Poel on Paris-Roubaix, Tadej Poacar, winner of the Tour des Flanders a fortnight, will be the big favorite of the Amstel Gold Race. If his Dutch rival will be absent, the Slovenian runner will face serious competitors like Tom Pidcock, the title holder, Remco Evenepoel, back to competition, or Marc Hirschi.
Julian Alaphilippe will also be at the start. But the Frenchman, absent from the Tour of Flanders due to a disease, and forced to abandon the Tour of the Basque Country last weekend, is not among the favorites. In 2019, the situation was completely different. The native of Saint-Amand-Montrond had just won Milan-San Remo and tackled AMSTEL in the favorite costume.
And 36 kilometers from the finish, the leader of the Quick-Step was going to hold his rank by standing on his pedals. Only Jakob Fulksang managed to follow him. Very quickly, the gap with the pursuers allowed them to believe in victory. It seemed promised to the approach of arrival. However, in the last hectometers, while the two escapes delayed, a group of pursuers caught up with them, allowing Matthieu Van der Poel to sign what was then his greatest victory.
Julian Alaphilippe misleads
While Jakob Fulksang managed to climb on the podium, Julian Alaphilippe was to be satisfied with fourth place. A heartbreaker for the French runner, who could have it all the worse since the return of the pursuers was only made possible by a gross error in the timers.
“Two or three kilometers from the finish, I heard that we still had forty-five seconds in advance, or thirty-five. I told myself that it was going to be enough ”, he explained on arrival, adding: “The peloton arrived from behind when I still had the 35 -second information in advance. Losing so much in such a short time is not possible. »» A version corroborated by his Danish colleague.
“In the final, my team told me to stop rolling with Alaphilippe. I told them they had to give me the gaps with the behind group. They announced to me twenty seconds …, he said. I turned around and they were already there, ten meters. It was not 20 seconds. They were wrong. »» An error with heavy consequences.
