Soudal-QuickStep confirmed Julian Alaphilippe would lead their seven-rider squad at subsequent week’s Czech Tour, July 25-28, which is able to conclude on the opening weekend of the Paris Olympic Games.
The UCI 2.1 four-day stage race will function the ultimate tuneup for Alaphilippe earlier than he competes for France within the males’s street race the next Saturday in his house Olympic Games.
Officially named to the French males’s street group on July 8, Alaphilippe will probably be joined on the roster alongside Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and European champion Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike). These three riders are all at present competing on the Tour de France, with Vauquelin having received stage 2 and can make their first appearances on the Olympics.
Alaphilippe has labored together with his WorldTour group this season to control his schedule for high situation, with the Olympic Games street race his high precedence. The veteran French rider opted to not journey with Soudal-QuickStep at this yr’s Tour de France to optimise that buildup for the Olympic street race, which takes place on Saturday, August 3.
It was throughout the Giro d’Italia, the place Alaphilippe received stage 12 in his debut on the Italian Grand Tour, that he advised group supervisor Patrick Lefevere that he needed to prioritise the Paris Games over the Tour for his summer time. He departed Italy with the general most combative rider award and an understanding that his path was clear for the Olympics.
“I perceive above all that Julian already has Paris in thoughts. It will probably be his final likelihood to reside the Olympic Games, particularly at house. Why deprive him of that,” Lefevere advised L’Equipe in May.
Alaphilppe makes his second look on the quadrennial competitors, using to fourth place within the street race on the 2016 Rio Games. The Paris street course favours the attacking Classics fashion of the two-time World Champion, with the 273km route together with 13 named ascents for two,800 metres of climbing. A 18.4km ending circuit in central Paris will embody passes up the 6.5% ramp of the Côte de la butte Montmartre.
When the Czech Tour’s stage 3 takes place on the Saturday previous to the Olympic street race, the time trial competitions happen in Paris for women and men. Vauquelin would be the sole consultant for France within the males’s ITT that day.
It is a first-time look for Soudal-QuickStep to participate within the Czech Tour, which may have eight WorldTour groups at first. Alaphilippe will line up with Czech native Josef Černý, Kasper Asgreen, Mattia Cattaneo, Antoine Huby, James Knox and Luke Lamperti.
