Alaphilippe: I raised the bar, but now it goes back to zero
13 January 2019 12:10
There's an old maxim in football that says if you go a goal up early on, you should pretend it's still nil-nil and try to continue playing with the mindset with which you started the game. Julian Alaphilippe seems to be tapping into that as he reflects on a breakthrough 2018 season and prepares to try and back it up in 2019. "Looking in the rearview mirror, let's say I raised the bar," Alaphilippe said in an interview at Deceunicnk-QuickStep's team presentation in Calpe this week, before later adding: "Now the meter goes back to zero." Alaphilippe has been destined for big things ever since bursting onto the scene with podiums at La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2015, his second season as a professional. Yet, despite winning the Tour of California in 2016 and a stage at the Vuelta a España in 2017, the Frenchman hadn't quite done much as everyone had expected in the subsequent years. Crucially, there was no big Classicvictory and no stage win at the Tour de France, though that can largely be explained by the knee injury that ruled him out of both the Ardennes races and the Tour in 2017.ADVERTISEMENT In 2018, though, everything fell into place and the Frenchman produced a string of results that did justice to his already-obvious talent. He made his Ardennes breakthrough by ending Alejandro Valverde's reign at La Flèche Wallonne, and enjoyed a heady July with two stage wins and the polka-dot jersey at the Tour de France. He won almost everywhere else he went, too, starting with a stage win in Colombia in February, followed by two at País Vasco and one at the Dauphiné. Following the Tour de France he won the Clásica San Sebastián, a stage and the overall at the Tour of Britain, and a stage and the overall at the Tour of Slovenia. He ended the year with 12 victories, trebling his tally from his first four seasons as a pro. "It's true that I made a big step last year. I've always been quite consistent in my results, but last year there was a big difference," he said. "Colombia was important. I'd never won a race so early. That was good for morale - it gave me confidence and told me my pre-season had gone well. It was a great way to launch the season. After that, things went quickly, on the back of each other, and I hit all the objectives I set myself. It was a sort of spiral where everything's going well, and more leads to more leads to more." Staying at the top
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