It must be said that Julian Alaphilippe has been doing a bit of a string of events lately: he got off to a pretty good start during the first months of the year, he had suffered an extremely severe fall in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race, breaking two ribs, one scapula and suffering from a pneumothorax, for which he had been treated by his colleague Romain Bardet. This one had even sacrificed his own race to help him!
A day, moreover, that Marion Rousse had described as one of the worst of her life. “For the first time, I lost my means because I didn’t know what he had. In general, a fall does not disturb me too much if he gets up, I tell myself that these are the risks of the job. But there, it was an atmosphere that I hope never to relive…“, she confided.
Without optimal preparation, the rider had not been able to defend his chances on the Tour de France, from which he had been dismissed by his team to the great fury of his partner. But once this disappointment had been digested and the bike re-mounted for the tour of Wallonia, he had seen another ordeal rise up in front of him: the Covid-19, which fell on him!
Today, he can finally leave and resume competition, hoping that with the support of his partner and his little Nino, he will end the year better than it started!