There are 152km of stage 15 of the Tour de France remaining, and Julian Alaphilippe is writhing in pain on the hot tarmac, cradling his right shoulder. It is the type of body language that normally means a rider’s next destination is the back of an ambulance and out of the race for good. But this is Alaphilippe, the two-time former world champion and one of the most exuberant, bonkers bike racers on the planet. He is not like anyone else. In the heat of the moment, despite the pain, the Frenchman remembers the last time this happened, and what the doctors did about it.
“I had a crash and dislocated my shoulder. For a few seconds, I thought it was over, but then I remembered what they did at the hospital, and I managed to pop it back in myself,” he says nonchalantly with a straight face, three-and-a-half hours later at the finish of the race in Carcassonne. There is a beat of stunned silence from reporters staring at him. It is not only that Alaphilippe managed to get back on his bike after that crash in the first place, but also that he subsequently chased to the rear of the peloton, made his way to the front, got in the winning breakaway and competed for the stage victory for the following 82km. But this is Alaphilippe, and the drama does not stop there.
After animating the stage from the front, executing his trademark stylish attacks with the usual panache, the Tudor Pro Cycling Team rider found himself approaching the finish as part of a 13-rider strong group. He sprinted hard as the line came into view, beating Wout van Aert with an impassioned lunge. But Alaphilippe – despite the fact that he celebrated with gusto – had not won the bike race. What he didn’t know was that Tim Wellens and Victor Campenaerts had already finished ahead of him in first and second place. It was Van Aert who broke the bad news.
“You have to take it in a funny way, even after the line Wout said to me, 'no, no', there were people in the front,” Alaphilippe said after the race, a few moments after emerging from the X-ray van. “After the crash my radio didn’t work, so like an idiot, I went for the sprint trying to win. But yeah, it’s all about mindset… mentally, I’m doing okay. I’ll take it in a funny way. I’ve done it at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, now I’ve done it at the Tour.”
The former world champion’s response to his miscalculation on stage 15 is a testament to his character. Alaphilippe is a rider who competes with his heart on his sleeve. His emotions are clear to us by the way he rocks and rolls over his bike, by the grimaces and grins on his expressive face. He gets things wrong, like he did at the finish of the Tour on Sunday, but he also gets things very right: Alaphilippe is human. There is no hiding in that.
He can, at least, take solace from the fact that his performance on stage 15 was a sign that the French rider, to the delight of his home fans, is steadily getting back to his best. This breakaway stage once would have been prime terrain for an Alaphilippe win, but we’ve come to stop relying on him over the last few seasons, as he has suffered injury and illness. Now, on his day, the Tudor rider is able to be up there with the best, just like he always has been.
“It was an incredible performance,” his team manager, Raphael Meyer, said after stage 15. “There was no chance to change his radio, so he was not aware of the two guys ahead of him. But that’s the beauty of cycling, he came third when we feared the worst. We are super proud of Julian and we hope the rest day gives him enough peace and quiet to start again on Tuesday.”
