Julian Alaphilippe

Later in the year, he came 4th in the European Road Race Championships and 9th in the UCI Road World Under-23 Championships.

He also won the final stage and the points classification of the Tour de l'Avenir, the Grand Prix Südkärnten, and a stage at the Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23.

Alaphilippe finished in 32nd position in the road time trial.

In September, he came close to winning the road race at the European Road Championships, finishing second in Plumelec.

Julian Alaphilippe (born 11 June 1992) is a French professional road cyclist, former cyclo-cross racer and two-time UCI World Road Champion, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam.

He is the brother of racing cyclist Bryan Alaphilippe.

In doing so, Alaphilippe recorded the best French performance at the race since Laurent Jalabert's runner-up finish in 1998.

Born in Saint-Amand-Montrond, Alaphilippe started his career competing in the cyclo-cross discipline and finished second in the Junior World Cyclo-Cross Championships in 2010.

After two top-10 finishes at the Volta a Catalunya, he rode in a supporting role at the Ardennes classics to help his teammate, the reigning world champion Michał Kwiatkowski, and finished 7th in the Amstel Gold Race behind winner Kwiatkowski.

In La Flèche Wallonne, his first time participating in the race, he continued to support Kwiatkowski but found his teammate too far behind at a crucial juncture.

His team director told him to go for the win and he finished second on the Mur de Huy behind three-time winner Alejandro Valverde.

The scenario repeated itself at Liège–Bastogne–Liège a few days later, when Alaphilippe finished second in his La Doyenne debut, again behind Valverde.

Alaphilippe's road career began in 2012, riding with amateur team.

During that season, he impressed at the Tour de Bretagne, finishing eleventh overall, and finished second overall and won a stage in the Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay, a UCI America Tour 2.2 event.

Alaphilippe joined, the development team of UCI WorldTeam.

The young rider had an even more successful season in 2013, taking a solo victory on stage 4 of the Tour de Bretagne.

Alaphilippe joined in 2014.

He made his professional debut in January, at the Tour Down Under, and obtained his first podium in the professional ranks on the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya.

He was also second in Stage 5.

Alaphilippe scored his first victory as a neo-pro in Stage 4 of the Tour de l'Ain, where he showed his explosiveness in an uphill finish ahead of Dan Martin, just days after another top 3 finish, at the RideLondon–Surrey Classic.

His best World Tour result of the year in a one-day race was a fifth-place finish from a seven-man group in the GP Ouest–France.

2015 was a breakthrough year for Alaphilippe.

Later in April, Alaphilippe again placed second at La Flèche Wallonne, as he did in 2015.

He then earned his biggest victory at the time, at the Tour of California, when he won a stage atop Gibraltar Road and the overall.

The lead was taken on stage 3 when he attacked on a hors-catégorie climb with less than 1 km left.

His form continued at the Critérium du Dauphiné where he finished sixth overall and first in the young rider classification – his first white jersey at a UCI World Tour race.

In late June, he was named in the start list for the Tour de France.

During the Tour de France, he held the young rider classification from stages 2 to 6, after taking second in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and won the combativity award on stage 16.

Alaphilippe was then selected to represent his nation at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, competing in the road race and the road time trial.

During the road race, he caught up with the leading group of cyclists on the final climb of Vista Chinesa, but his crash on the descent hindered him from joining the final attack launched by Greg Van Avermaet and Jakob Fuglsang to catch the sole leader Rafał Majka before the finish line.

Alaphilippe eventually finished the road race in fourth position, 22 seconds behind the winner Van Avermaet.

After those performances and a string of podium finishes in the Tour de Romandie, Alaphilippe signed a two-year contract extension in May, until the end of the 2017 season.

Later in the month he won the queen stage of the Tour of California, atop Mount Baldy, and took over the lead in the general classification, two seconds ahead of Peter Sagan.

However, he lost the overall eventually to Sagan by just three seconds in the last stage due to the time bonuses in a bunch sprint.

In the later part of the summer, he finished eighth at the Clásica de San Sebastián, finishing in the lead group behind the winner, Adam Yates.

He subsequently finished tenth overall in the Eneco Tour, which included a stage that used many of the Ardennes classics roads.

He failed to finish in the road race at the World Championships, and was later diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis – leading to extreme fatigue, and marking the end of his season.

Alaphilippe started his season at February's Tour La Provence, and recorded his first top-ten finish of the season at April's Brabantse Pijl, before finishing sixth at the Amstel Gold Race.

Alaphilippe started his 2017 spring preparation at the Abu Dhabi Tour, where he finished fifth overall and won the best young rider classification.

In March, he rode Paris–Nice and won his first career individual time trial, with an uphill finish on stage 4.