Julian Alaphilippe

Born in Saint-Amand-Montrond, Alaphilippe started his career competing in the cyclo-cross discipline, finishing second in the Junior World Cyclo-Cross Championships in 2010.

Alaphilippe's road career began in 2012, riding with amateur team Armée de Terre. During this season, he finished second overall and won a stage in the Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay, a UCI America Tour 2.2 event.[4]

Alaphilippe joined Etixx–IHNed, the development team for UCI WorldTeam Omega Pharma–Quick-Step. The young rider had an even more successful season in 2013, finishing 4th in the European Road Race Championships and 9th in the UCI Road World Under–23 Championships. He also won a stage and the points classification of the Tour de l'Avenir, and won the Grand Prix Südkärnten, a one-day race.

Alaphilippe joined Omega Pharma–Quick-Step in 2014. He obtained his first podium on the first stage of the Volta a Catalunya. He was also second in Stage 5.[4] Alaphilippe scored his first victory as a neo-pro in Stage 4 of Tour de l'Ain where he showed his explosiveness in an uphill finish ahead of Dan Martin.[5] His best World Tour result of the year was a fifth-place finish in the GP Ouest-France.

Alaphilippe (left) on the podium of the 2015 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, along with Alejandro Valverde (centre) and Joaquim Rodríguez

2015 was a breakthrough year for Alaphilippe. He acted as a supporter role in the Ardennes classics to help his teammate, the reigning world champion Michał Kwiatkowski, but surprisingly finished 7th in the Amstel Gold Race behind winner Kwiatkowski. In La Flèche Wallonne, his first time participating in the race, he continued to support Kwiatkowski but found his teammate too far behind at a crucial juncture. His team director told him to go for the win and he finished second after three-time winner Alejandro Valverde.[6] The scenario repeated itself at Liège–Bastogne–Liège a few days later when Alaphilippe finished 2nd in his La Doyenne debut, again behind Valverde.[7] In doing so, the 22-year-old realized the best French performance on this classic since 1998, when Laurent Jalabert finished second.[8]

After those performances and a string of podium finishes in the Tour de Romandie, Alaphilippe was, on 4 May, granted a contract extension for two more years, until the end of 2017.[9] Later in the month he won the queen stage of the Tour of California and took over the lead in the general classification, 2 seconds ahead of Peter Sagan.[10] However, he lost the overall eventually to Sagan by just 3 seconds in the last stage due to the time bonuses in a flat sprint.[11] In the later part of the summer, he finished eighth in the Clásica de San Sebastián, finishing in the lead group behind the winner, Adam Yates. He subsequently finished tenth overall in the Eneco Tour, which included a stage that used many of the Ardennes classics roads.[12] His form was dropped significantly near the end of the year, including a DNF in the Road World Championships. He was later diagnosed with mononucleosis. The disease led to extreme fatigue, rendering him unable to maintain his top performance and marking the end of his season.[13]

Alaphillippe (left) at the 2016 Tour de France

In April, Alaphilippe placed 2nd at the La Flèche Wallonne for the second year in a row. He then earned his biggest victory so far at the Tour of California, when he won a stage and the overall. The lead was taken on stage 3 when he attacked on an HC climb with less than one kilometer left. His form continued in Critérium du Dauphiné which he finished 6th overall and 1st in the young rider classification. It was also his first white jersey in UCI World Tour races.[14] In late June, he was named in the start list for the Tour de France.[15] During the Tour de France, he held the young rider classification from stages 2–6 and won the combativity award on stage 16.

Alaphilippe was selected to represent his nation at the Olympics men's road race and Olympic men's road time trial.[16] During the road race and being one of the pre-race favorites, he caught up with the leading group of cyclists on the final climb of Vista Chinesa, but his crash on the descent hindered him from joining the final attack launched by Greg Van Avermaet and Jakob Fuglsang to catch the sole leader Rafał Majka before the finish line. Alaphilippe eventually finished the road race in fourth position, 22 seconds behind the winner Van Avermaet.[17][18] Alaphilippe finished in 32nd position in the Olympic men's road time trial.

Alaphilippe in the White Jersey at the 2017 Paris-Nice

Alaphilippe started his 2017 spring preparation in Abu Dhabi Tour. He finished 5th overall and won the young rider classification. In March, he rode Paris–Nice and won his first time trial in his career with an uphill finish in stage 4 keeping his race lead in the next three days.[19] He finished 5th overall eventually, but able to remain the winner of the young rider classification. The four top-5 stage finishes was also enough for him to clinch the points classification. The following weekend, Alaphilippe finished third at Milan–San Remo, being narrowly beaten in a sprint by Michał Kwiatkowski and world champion Peter Sagan after the trio broke clear on the final climb, Poggio di San Remo.[20]

After a strong start, Alaphilippe's season was hampered by a lengthy injury sustained at Vuelta al País Vasco. It was announced in April by his team that Alaphilippe would miss the Ardennes classics due to pre-patellar lesion knee injury.[21] He also missed out his primary goal of the year, Tour de France, after undergoing a knee surgery in May.[22] Alaphilippe returned to race at Grand Prix Pino Cerami in July[23] and made his debut Vuelta a España a month later. He scored his maiden Grand Tour stage win in Stage 8 during which he outclimbed Rafał Majka and Jan Polanc from a breakaway.[24]

In August, Alaphilippe signed a two-year contract with his team Quick-Step Floors, keeping him through 2019 season.[25]

Alaphillipe wearing the polka dot jersey at the 2018 Tour de France

During the third and final ascent of the Mur de Huy at the 2018 La Flèche Wallonne, Alaphilippe accelerated near its summit, overtaking the sole race leader Jelle Vanendert in the last 100 metres of the race and dropping him. Alejandro Valverde, who had won the last four La Flèche Wallonne editions, staged a late fight-back and almost caught Alaphilippe, but the latter was able to kick again in the final meters to increase his lead over Valverde and eventually win the race. It was the biggest victory of Alaphilippe's career so far and he was the first French winner of the La Flèche Wallonne since Laurent Jalabert won it in 1997.[26][27]

Alaphilippe participated in his second Tour de France this season, and claimed his maiden Tour de France stage win in the 10th stage of the race with a series of attacks and aggressive descending in the Alps. He took the maximum mountains classification points on the Montée du plateau des Glières, the Col de Romme and the Col de la Colombière, finishing the stage 1 min 34 secs ahead of the second placed rider Ion Izagirre of Bahrain–Merida, and 3:23 ahead of the peloton that included the defending champion Chris Froome. Alaphilippe also took the lead in the mountains classification after the end of Stage 10.[28][29] Alaphilippe won the 16th stage of the race after Adam Yates crashed on the descent 7 km before the finishing line while the latter was leading that stage alone.[30]

The following month, Alaphilippe won the Clásica de San Sebastián, out-sprinting Bauke Mollema for the win, after the two riders escaped the field on the final climb.[31] He then won the third stage and the general classification of the Tour of Britain, after taking the overall lead on the sixth stage of the week long competition. Alaphilippe continued to have success in stage races, as he won the Okolo Slovenska less than a week later.

Despite his large amount of successes in 2018, Alaphilippe faced disappointment at the UCI Road World Championships, where he was appointed France's team leader. On the final climb, he cracked and lost contact with the race leaders, and ended up finishing 8th.[32]

Alaphilippe celebrating victory at the 2019 Milan-San Remo

Alaphilippe started the 2019 season in February with the Vuelta a San Juan and the Tour Colombia. At the Vuelta a San Juan, he finished second overall and won two stages, and won the points classification and one stage of the latter. His first major race was the 2019 Strade Bianche, which he won, beating out Astana rider Jakob Fuglsang in a kick up the final climb.[33] He finished 6th overall in Tirreno–Adriatico, earning a surprise victory on stage 6 despite leading out his team's designated sprinter Elia Viviani.[34] He then won his first Monument, in the 2019 Milan–San Remo after attacking on the Poggio and outsprinting Oliver Naesen and Michal Kwiatkowski. He became UCI World ranking No. 1. This was followed up by a near-miss of a podium place for the Amstel Gold, then three days later, a successful defense of his La Flèche Wallonne title that he had won in 2018. Alaphilippe won the third stage of the Tour de France on July 8th, simultaneously earning himself the yellow jersey. After losing the jersey on stage six to Giulio Ciccone, he regained it after the eighth stage, where he finished third. He then won stage 13, the individual time trial, in Pau by beating Geraint Thomas by 14s. He kept the jersey until stage 19 after being dropped on the Col de l'Iseran. It was his most successful Tour to date finishing in 5th place overall, winning 2 stages, wearing the yellow jersey for 14 stages and while he was not named the most combative rider after any individual stages, he did stand on the podium in Paris as the most combative rider for the entire Tour.

• Vélo d'Or: 2019[35]
• Vélo d'Or français: 2019[35]