Julian Alaphilippe once turned the Tour de France into his personal stage. In 2019, the charismatic Frenchman wore the yellow jersey for 14 days, won two stages and carried an unexpected challenge for overall victory deep into the mountains.
Seven years later, the picture could hardly be more different. At 34, Alaphilippe is enduring a miserable Tour, repeatedly finishing near the back and struggling on terrain that would once have suited his explosive style.
The decline has prompted emotional reactions in France, including a brutal verdict from former rider and team manager Jérôme Pineau: the Alaphilippe era is over.
From yellow jersey hero to last place
Alaphilippe’s difficulties were laid bare on stage 11 from Vichy to Nevers.
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He joined a four-man breakaway after 13 kilometres and spent almost 100 kilometres at the front. However, he was dropped on the fourth-category Côte de Billy-Chevannes, caught by the peloton and then distanced again.
According to Dani Ostanek’s report for Cyclingnews, Alaphilippe eventually finished 174th and last, seven minutes and 36 seconds behind Søren Wærenskjold.
The result was particularly striking because stage 11 was not a mountain stage. Wærenskjold won at an average speed of 50.9km/h, making it the fastest road stage in Tour history, but Alaphilippe’s inability to remain with the breakaway on a modest climb still caused alarm.
His struggles continued on stage 13, where he finished 124th. However, his comments about initially feeling strong before suffering in the heat were made after stage 11—not stage 13, as has sometimes been reported.
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“I felt good at the start, then it began to get hot,” Alaphilippe said. “I immediately had the same sensations as in recent days, which is to say nothing particularly good.”
Former riders deliver bleak verdict
The sight of Alaphilippe labouring at the back has been difficult for former French professionals who remember him attacking the sport’s biggest races.
As quoted in Kieran Wood’s article for CyclingUpToDate, Jérôme Coppel told RMC: “I didn’t recognise him. He has lost his joy for life. You can sense that mentally, things are not right.”
That remains Coppel’s personal impression rather than a medical assessment of Alaphilippe’s mental health.
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Pineau was even more severe.
“There is clearly something wrong,” he said. “He is dragging himself around. He is there because he carries a name, because he is a brand. But unfortunately, you can say the Julian era is over.”
Pineau described the situation as “the end of a phenomenon” and suggested that Alaphilippe must now make careful decisions about the closing years of his career.
Tudor refuses to write him off
Alaphilippe’s team has offered a more measured explanation.
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Tudor sports director Addy Engels said the Frenchman was not ill and continued to approach the race with the correct attitude. The problem, Engels explained, was simply that his legs were not responding as expected.
“It’s as if he only has one or two rounds left to fire,” Engels said. “Then his legs give out, and he’s forced to slow down.”
That assessment also challenges the suggestion that Alaphilippe has mentally checked out. Tudor remains uncertain about the reason for his poor form, but Engels has not abandoned hope of a sudden improvement.
“As long as we don’t know what’s happening to him, magic can still happen,” he said.
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A champion with nothing left to prove
Alaphilippe’s current form should not obscure an exceptional career.
ProCyclingStats’ rider profile credits him with 45 professional victories, including six Tour de France stages, Milan–San Remo, three editions of La Flèche Wallonne and consecutive world road race titles in 2020 and 2021.
He also won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in September 2025, demonstrating that he was still capable of defeating an elite field less than a year before his current Tour difficulties.
Alaphilippe remains under contract with Tudor through 2027 and has given no indication that retirement is imminent. Pineau may believe the Frenchman’s era has ended, but that conclusion remains an opinion rather than a confirmed decision about his future.
What is beyond dispute is that the rider who once electrified the Tour is currently a long way from his best—and that watching him struggle has become one of the race’s saddest stories.
