Towards the end of a difficult season in the rainbow jersey, Julian Alaphilippe said he hopes to be able to laugh on the bike at the next Vuelta a España.
The Frenchman is part of a QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team created for the challenge of Remco Evenepoel’s general and is in a position to play its component. But the Vuelta is also his first WorldTour race since his terrible accident at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the spring.
Alaphilippe suffered fractures to his shoulder blade and ribs, as well as a punctured lung in the massive accident and lasted two months before resuming racing. He missed the Tour de France variety and then suffered a setback after testing positive for COVID-19 at the Tour de Wallonie. , where he won the first stage.
Since then, Alaphilippe has been with the Tour de l’Ain as a preparation for the Vuelta and the two-time world champion enters the final stretch of the season motivated after the setbacks that have explained his 2022 campaign.
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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, adding the Tour de France and the Spring Classics, and interviewed several of the sport’s biggest stars, adding 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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