Alaphilippe is STILL Alaphilippe

I think lefevre want to feel his riders are giving it their all. The moment he feels his riders are slacking off he gets upset.

Chris, don't forget the Soudal effect, it brings disaster. From Lotto to Quickstep. 😁😁

Patrick Lefebvre is a real cu.t 🍅and JA is a gladiator 💪👍

I'm not really a fan of Levefre's comments. It's not really tasteful to drag the riders through the dirt in public.

Still I'd like to point out a couple of things which I'd say ..Lefevre has his point. I mean ..his knowledge of the sport is not really questionable:

Bennett: He said that Bennett's always struggling more with his head than his body. Well … didn't he? That was the case at Bora earlier on: If he got one victory, others followed soon after. If it didn't click immediately, not much followed.
That went on with his second stint at Bora. Look at his results at AG2R and his own interviews in which he tries to explain the reasons for his lacklustre results. So yeah … I'd think Lefevre has a point here, style aside.

Alaphilippe: Lefevre says (among other things) he crashes way too much. Well …doesn't he? Crashing in Liège, crashing again in the Vuelta, this season alone he crashed in the Omloop, Strade Bianche, E3, I'm not sure about Dwars door vlaanderen …

He's also not holding back critics towards his classics group, at least hinting at this to come. And hmm … I'd say rightly so. Except for Merlier the results of riders like Asgreen and Lampaert were miserable.

I don't like the style too but I wouldn't say he's wrong.

That aside..of course an injured rider should be on a break. Health and sanity first. Leaving the decision open for himself only creates pressure through the back door, specially after pointing out that he crashes too often misses too many races injured.

With Bennett it was if I remember correctly that Bennett hid information about his injury and condition, pretending to be ready and then close to the TdF the team finding out he wasn't ready, having to call up Cavendish. This is quite the opposite of pressuring riders into racing with an injury.

Regarding this Alaphilippe fibula crack injury, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just blown up. I would be surprised that the team doctors put the choice with Alaphilippe if it was too bad. For all we know the impact of this injury was marginal with Alaphilippe now putting the blame there. Ofcourse you can say "look at MSR", but he already had the injury there? And how do we know that he didn't (accidentally) peaked at MSR or that he that day just had an exceptional day in a race well suited to him. The pressure to ride also could have come from himself or the fact he's in a contract year and Ardennes aren't good with Giro plans when he likely wants to take a rest and altitude.

Lefevere always has been clear that he doesn't pressures or influences doctors decisions, he just works with the decision made.

I picked Alaphilippe for my Wielermanager classics team (Sporza), so I sure wanted him to be good again. In TdU there were some promising signs afterall, where he wasn't great, but decent at least. But in the end those performances and MSR were the only decent results and while good for someone from the top100 riders or so, it is at best decent for someone who has been in the top 5 of cyclists. I don't know if Alaphilippe will ever get back to his peak performances. I hope so, but I am not so optimistic at this moment. And he should never get even close the salary he gets now for his next contract, unless for publicity sake (like with a French team)

As for Lefevere's comments, that is who he is. Anyone that rides for him knows this. However most riders also said that while he might sometimes come on hard, in the end he generally has their back as long as he doesn't feel betrayed (like was the case with Bennett). Sometimes his comments also gets enlarged. The Alaphilippe "party and drinking" comment was a 2 minute piece in a several hours long interview, more an anecdote then singling him out. Lefevere even stated afterwards that this was from 2022 and that since he had a conversation with him in winter 2022, Alaphilippe hasn't touched a drop of alcohol and been an almost model rider. This is completely the opposite of pressuring him imo. And he's right, Alaphilippe hasn't been worth his money in the last 3 years, crashes are fine for one year, but you can't keep using this, then it is also a riders problem.

Alaphilippe wanted to ride the Flemish classics fyi. That wasn't a team decision from what I got. Likely to do with Alaphilippe wanting to ride the giro and maybe afraid to be in Remco's shadow?

Please stop the fracture/break distinction. They are the same. It’s possible to further describe the injury (open, spiral, displaced,etc) but a fracture and a break are the same. Also you recently seemed to advise not using a spirometer if you have a rib fracture. Please be careful giving medical advice. You are a brilliant race tactician but you’re not a doctor.

Thank you for this great video. It is past time to call out Patrick LeFevere for his bullying. I am convinced that he destroyed Sam Bennett's career by destroying his confidence in himself. And now he is trying to destroy Julian Alaphilippe. Julian deserves better than to have to work under a bully like Patrick LeFevere.

if you like road cycling: PCR channel À propos

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Absolutely correct! Time for the sponsors to fire PL

Exactly!

@ChrisHornerCycling Coincidence? After Brian Holm stopped, noone has the guts to tell Patrick LeFevre to chill….

There is a solution for this problem: you put the boss on the Chesterfield and you take the responsability of Julian! Anyways, i wish more luck to Alaphippe who is one of this crashkings as well as a champion. Never write off an old champion, but foremost: never treat him with dedain!

he is a bully. That's not sound management he's practicing.

I haven’t been watching cycling long enough to know this, but it seems like with the results that they’ve had for the last few years (aside from Remco) Quickstep should be having trouble even staying afloat as a team. It seems like it would be hard to find sponsors to pay your riders at this point. So maybe Lefevre won’t be around much longer anyway?