Julian Alaphilippe
Julian Alaphilippe is a French professional road cyclist, former cyclo-cross racer and two-time UCI World Road Champion, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam. He is the brother of racing cyclist Bryan Alaphilippe.
Career
Early career
Born in Saint-Amand-Montrond, Alaphilippe started his career competing in the cyclo-cross discipline and finished second in the Junior World Cyclo-Cross Championships in 2010.Alaphilippe's road career began in 2012, riding with amateur team. During that season, he impressed at the Tour de Bretagne, finishing eleventh overall, and finished second overall and won a stage in the Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay, a UCI America Tour 2.2 event.
Alaphilippe joined, the development team of UCI WorldTeam. The young rider had an even more successful season in 2013, taking a solo victory on stage 4 of the Tour de Bretagne. Later in the year, he came 4th in the European Road Race Championships and 9th in the UCI Road World Under-23 Championships. He also won the final stage and the points classification of the Tour de l'Avenir, the Grand Prix Südkärnten, and a stage at the Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23.
Omega Pharma–Quick-Step (2014–2024)
2014
Alaphilippe joined in 2014. He made his professional debut in January, at the Tour Down Under, and obtained his first podium in the professional ranks on the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya. He was also second in Stage 5. Alaphilippe scored his first victory as a neo-pro in Stage 4 of the Tour de l'Ain, where he showed his explosiveness in an uphill finish ahead of Dan Martin, just days after another top 3 finish, at the RideLondon–Surrey Classic.His best World Tour result of the year in a one-day race was a fifth-place finish from a seven-man group in the GP Ouest–France.
2015
2015 was a breakthrough year for Alaphilippe. After two top-10 finishes at the Volta a Catalunya, he rode in a supporting role at the Ardennes classics to help his teammate, the reigning world champion Michał Kwiatkowski, and 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 on the Mur de Huy behind three-time winner Alejandro Valverde. The scenario repeated itself at Liège–Bastogne–Liège a few days later, when Alaphilippe finished second in his La Doyenne debut, again behind Valverde. In doing so, Alaphilippe recorded the best French performance at the race since Laurent Jalabert's runner-up finish in 1998.After those performances and a string of podium finishes in the Tour de Romandie, Alaphilippe signed a two-year contract extension in May, until the end of the 2017 season. Later in the month he won the queen stage of the Tour of California, atop Mount Baldy, and took over the lead in the general classification, two seconds ahead of Peter Sagan. However, he lost the overall eventually to Sagan by just three seconds in the last stage due to the time bonuses in a bunch sprint. In the later part of the summer, he finished eighth at 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. He failed to finish in the road race at the World Championships, and was later diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis – leading to extreme fatigue, and marking the end of his season.
2016
Alaphilippe started his season at February's Tour La Provence, and recorded his first top-ten finish of the season at April's Brabantse Pijl, before finishing sixth at the Amstel Gold Race. Later in April, Alaphilippe again placed second at La Flèche Wallonne, as he did in 2015. He then earned his biggest victory at the time, at the Tour of California, when he won a stage atop Gibraltar Road and the overall. The lead was taken on stage 3 when he attacked on a hors-catégorie climb with less than left. His form continued at the Critérium du Dauphiné where he finished sixth overall and first in the young rider classification – his first white jersey at a UCI World Tour race. In late June, he was named in the start list for the Tour de France. During the Tour de France, he held the young rider classification from stages 2 to 6, after taking second in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and won the combativity award on stage 16.Alaphilippe was then selected to represent his nation at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, competing in the road race and the road time trial. During the road race, 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. Alaphilippe finished in 32nd position in the road time trial.
In September, he came close to winning the road race at the European Road Championships, finishing second in Plumelec.
2017
Alaphilippe started his 2017 spring preparation at the Abu Dhabi Tour, where he finished fifth overall and won the best young rider classification. In March, he rode Paris–Nice and won his first career individual time trial, with an uphill finish on stage 4. He kept his race lead over the next three days, before finishing fifth overall, and won the young rider and points classifications. The following weekend, Alaphilippe finished third on his debut 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, the Poggio di San Remo.Alaphilippe's season was then hampered by a lengthy injury sustained at the Tour of the Basque Country. It was announced in April by his team that Alaphilippe would miss the Ardennes classics due to a pre-patellar lesion knee injury. He also missed out his primary goal of the year, the Tour de France, after undergoing knee surgery in May. Alaphilippe returned to racing at Grand Prix Pino Cerami in July, and made his debut at the 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, on the roads to Xorret de Catí.
Also in August, Alaphilippe signed a two-year contract extension with his team, keeping him through the 2019 season.
At the World Championships held in Bergen, he broke clear on the last climb of the race and led until under the flamme rouge, before being overhauled by the peloton and finishing tenth. One month later, Alaphilippe concluded his season at the Tour of Guangxi by taking fourth overall and the young rider classification.
2018
Alaphilippe started his season at the inaugural Colombia Oro y Paz and won the uphill finish to Alto Boquerón, before finishing seventh overall and as the only non-South American rider in the top 10. He then returned at the Abu Dhabi Tour and went one place better than in the previous year, taking fourth place overall after a podium finish on the final stage of the race. After a pair of top 3 finishes at Paris–Nice, he took his first victory of the season in Zarautz in the opening stage of the Tour of the Basque Country; he also won the following stage into Bermeo.Seventh at the Amstel Gold Race, he finally scored his first one-day race victory just a couple of days later. During the third and final ascent of the Mur de Huy at La Flèche Wallonne, Alaphilippe accelerated near the summit, overtaking Jelle Vanendert in the last 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 Alaphilippe was able to kick again in the final metres to increase his lead over Valverde and eventually win the race. It was the biggest victory of Alaphilippe's career at that point, and he was the first French winner of La Flèche Wallonne since Laurent Jalabert won in 1997.
File:TDF14341 alaphilippe.jpg|thumb|left|Alaphilippe wearing the polka dot jersey at the 2018 Tour de France. He ultimately won the mountains classification, and finished 33rd overall.
Alaphilippe participated in his second Tour de France after a successful Critérium du Dauphiné, where he won the stage to Lans-en-Vercors, and claimed his maiden Tour de France stage win in stage 10 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 to Le Grand-Bornand more than one minute ahead of the second-placed rider Ion Izagirre of, and over three minutes ahead of the peloton that included the defending champion Chris Froome. Alaphilippe also took the lead in the mountains classification at the end of Stage 10. Alaphilippe won the 16th stage of the race after Adam Yates crashed while leading, on the descent before the finishing line. He maintained his mountains classification lead throughout the second half of the race, finishing 79 points ahead of his closest rival.
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, the Murgil Tontorra. 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 became the first Frenchman to win 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 in Austria, 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.