After an era of uncertainty about whether Julian Alaphilippe would compete at the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, the two-time world champion was shown as the starter.
Alaphilippe, who triumphed at Imola and Leuven, fell out of the Vuelta a España just two weeks ago at level 11 of the race, dislocating his shoulder in the process.
His participation in the World Cup is at stake, and his QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team boss Patrick Lefevere has since said it would be “risky” for him to race in Australia, but the French Cycling Federation (FFC) has shown he will lead his men’s team next week.
“He needs to take the risk, but I don’t think he’s very smart. If I had been him, I would have missed the World Championship and bet everything on Italian racing,” Lefevere said last week.
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Daniel Ostanek is editor-in-chief of Cyclingnews, joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and was later hired as editor. Prior to joining the team, he had written for most of the leading publications in the world of cycling, adding CyclingWeekly, Rouleur and Tips for Cyclists.
Daniel reported on racing in the world, added the Tour de France and the Spring Classics, and interviewed several of the sport’s biggest stars, and added Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel, Mark Cavendish, Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen.
In addition to the original reporting, story and report writing, and production work, Daniel also directs The Leadout newsletter and oversees the season’s How to Watch guides. His favourite races are the Strade Bianche and the Volta a Portugal, and he drives a Colnago C40. .
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