Having said before La Vuelta that he was paying Julian Alaphilippe to do more than win the world title, Patrick Lefevere has suggested the Frenchman will likely miss the Worlds this year after his crash at la Vuelta yesterday.
He also said the loss of Alaphilippe from the race would have an “enormous” impact on his young team mate, Remco Evenepoel, who is currently leading the race and has dominated the general classification battle so far.
"In the best case scenario, he will be back on his bike in fourteen days," QuickStep-AlphaVinyl boss Lefevere said of Alaphilippe, who has been diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder after his crash yesterday, but no fractures.
“The World Championships may be too soon, but maybe he can get ready for Lombardia and the Italian races. Then a Belgian could become world champion this year," added Lefevere.
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“It's bad luck for Julian, who has already seen more hospitals than sat on his bike this year. The impact on Remco is enormous,” he said. Using a soccer analogy, Lefevere added Alaphilippe was the man to “cross” the ball to Evenepoel so he could “score” on this Vuelta.
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Alaphilippe was taken from the scene of his crash yesterday by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where his dislocated shoulder and the absence of fractures was diagnosed. However, he is set to undergo further tests in Belgium today to establish if his injuries are more complex.
For example, those tests will determine if he has done any ligament, or other soft tissue, damage which may take longer to recover from. The further tests will also seek to determine if he has suffered micro fractures not spotted during the medical examinations performed so far.
Before yesterday’s crash, Alaphilippe had spent a prolonged period out of race action after his crash at Liège–Bastogne–Liège back in April, when he sustained two broken ribs, a broken scapula and a hemo pneumothorax.
He returned to racing at the French national championships two months after his crash, before deciding his condition was not good enough to ride the Tour de France.
Since then he has won a stage at Tour de Wallonie and had ridden very well in support of Evenepoel at La Vuelta. He was expected to continue building his form on the Spanish Grand Tour ahead of his world title defence after claiming the rainbow bands last year and in 2020.
