In the middle, we call it “making a sun”: falling over your handlebars. On the famous Italian classic by Strade Bianchi, renowned for its gravelly white roads, Julian Alaphilippe had a great misadventure a hundred kilometers from the finish. While he was rather well placed at the head of the peloton, the double French world champion suffered a fall caused both by a gust of wind, which unbalanced him, and also by the loss of control of his a rider from the Alpecin team, just in front of him.
Alaphilippe took full force from this rider’s bike before flying off head first. Fortunately, his “spin” was large enough that he didn’t land directly on his head, but rather on his back. Behind him, almost half of the peloton was caught up in this fall. One of the race favourites, Tiejs Benoot, was thus forced to retire.
Visibly unscathed from any serious injury, Julian Alaphilippe managed to leave following regaining his senses. Back in the peloton, he even placed the first attacks before gradually letting go once morest the power of the winner of the day, the phenomenal Tadej Pogacar. “I don’t know exactly what happened, reacted following the race Alaphilippe, finally 58th, in remarks collected by Het Nieuwsblad. It was blowing hard, suddenly they fell in front of me and I was there too. I have pain in my back at the moment”.
A feeling that he confirmed in a tweet: “Rather a beautiful day, until the moment when I had no choice but to visit the field. A good back pain so we take stock tomorrow. »
The Frenchman is expected to start in Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday, a very famous Italian stage race. Provided his back leaves him calm.
