Deceuninck - Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere has said that Julian Alaphilippe races "way too crazy" but understands that's the key to his success.
Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) has been on the attack on almost every other stage at this year's Tour de France without much success since his stage win on the opening day.
In a piece by Het Nieuwsblad, Patrick Lefevere said: "It's true that Julian has had all of his great successes.
"He is used to racing impulsively. As world champion in his own country, he also wants to show his jersey, of course. But at the same time, that jersey also weighs on him. From the moment Julian bounces, there are a lot of people on his wheel."
>>> Tour de France stage 15 LIVE - Céret to Andorra la Vella
Alaphilippe hasn't quite had the success of previous years while being world champion, but he really impressed on stage one in Brittany.
"What he did there was a really big number," continued Lefevere. "Julian wins in Landerneau and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) the next day on the Mûr de Bretagne, while everyone expected it to be the other way around. Cycling is not always predictable."
Lefevere says that Alaphilippe is racing "way too crazy, but that's how he has achieved all his great successes."
It is likely that the world champion won't be back to his general classification days in the Tour after he took fifth overall in 2019, according to Lefevere: "He doesn't have the 'long distance' he had two years ago when he finished fifth in the standings,
"Julian may be a little impulsive, but everything he does is with the best of intentions. We don't blame him. I've never been able to be mad at Julian."
The Tour de France heads into the Pyrenees on stage 15 with the highest point of the Tour in Andorra, the one and only time that the race leaves France in 2021.
Alaphilippe was on the move early on stage 15 (July 11) as he looked for a second stage win in the rainbow bands.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
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