uickStep-AlphaVinyl team manager Patrick Lefevere has demanded more from one of his star riders, Julian Alaphilippe.
It was a year to forget for Alaphilippe, who was a notable absentee at the Tour de France after sustaining injury in a big crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which left him with a punctured lung and broken ribs.
The Frenchman was among a swarm of riders to go down in a big pile-up with 60km remaining.
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He was left in a ditch, with rival Romain Bardet (Team DSM) so alarmed at his compatriot’s plight that he walked down a steep slope to check on him, rather than set off in pursuit of the peloton.
Alaphilippe, a world title winner in 2020 and 2021, also crashed out of La Vuelta on Stage 11 when he slid off his bike and dislocated his shoulder.
The 30-year-old has now recovered and is preparing for the 2023 campaign, and has been ordered to return to winning ways by Lefevere.
“I want him to recover – he owes me revenge,” Lefevere, whose team will be rebranded Soudal-QuickStep in 2023, told La Derniere Heure, a Belgian French-language newspaper.
“Julian has a salary of a champion, but he needs to confirm that he is still a champion.
“I don’t care that he is no longer world champion – he hasn’t won much in recent years.”
Lefevere also suggested that Alaphilippe needed to take some of the responsibility for an injury-plagued season.
“Yes, he’s had a lot of bad luck,” Lefevere continued, “but it’s always the same people who are lucky and the same people who are unlucky.”
Lefevere has been spending time in Calpe, Spain at the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl training camp as the team prepare for the new season.
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