Animated, fingers pointing here and there, head bobbing around, Julian Alaphilippe, with his neatly trimmed goatee and well-manicured hair, is embodying his compatriot Thibaut Pinot and speaking from the heart; he’s emulating his fellow Frenchman Guillaume Martin’s philosophical tones; and he’s echoing Romain Bardet’s pragmatism and perspective. Put the quartet in a room together and you have four wannabee scholars.

“Maybe it’s part of our personality,” he says of the French’s romanticised view of cycling. “But also how we see, imagine and do cycling. For some others, they do it more for numbers, but I love this side of not knowing.” He pauses, looks to the sky and makes circular shapes with his fingers, as if composing a play. “Wow, wow, why do this, fuck, this is nice, you know, this is nice,” he says. “One side is clinical, execution, records, but I tell you it’s boring. It’s boring, I tell you. The people, the fans, they will say the same.”

This article was published on Rouleur in January 2025. You can read the full article here.