Cycling: Philippe Gilbert talks about the Alaphilippe file!

During the broadcast of the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Eurosport, Philippe Gilbert, whose wife had sharply addressed Marion Rousse on social networks after the latter’s response to the criticism launched by Patrick Lefévère aimed at him and that of his companion Julian Alaphilippe, answered questions about the French champion, whose teammate he was a few years ago at Soudal-Quickstep. His look inevitably arouses great interest.

On the occasion of the broadcast of the second stage of Tirreno Adriatico, Philippe Gilbertconsultant for the channel Eurosportwas invited to speak on the matter Alaphilippeand in particular on the public criticism leveled at the French champion by Patrick Lefévèrethe general manager of the Soudal-Quickstep. Gilbertwho was the Frenchman’s teammate in the team Soudal-Quickstepand who therefore knows so well Patrick Lefévère that the internal history between the two men appears in a position to provide an interesting analysis.

“When you fall regularly, you need outside help”

Philippe Gilbert notably indicated: “ A nice mess lately for Julian? Yes. Afterwards, there were all these falls, and it’s not ideal. When you fall, it’s never easy, but he kept falling. I thought I saw that he even fell three times at Het Nieuwsblad, plus once at Strade Bianche a week later. The body has a memory, it records blows and shocks, it fights to heal, and this is energy that we no longer have to improve physically. There is also a loss of confidence. When we fall regularly, we ask ourselves the question. Is it me who is no longer able to ride as fast, to be as precise at this level? Apprehension sets in and this is where a sports psychologist must intervene. In this case, we need external help to dispel this apprehension. It is also the team’s job to give the athlete confidence. This morning on the microphone, Julian tried to brush aside the questions by talking about his teammate Tim Merlier. I think it would be the best thing that could happen to him, to see Merlier win so that he can find himself a little in the shadows to recover and hope to quickly find better days ».

“Patrick Lefévère’s type of communication is no longer done today”

Raised again on the question of team support and on the very questionable dimension of public criticism of Yeast there it would have been preferable for them to stay internally, Gilbert replied : ” Everyone knows Patrick Lefévère, he has always been like that. I have always seen, regularly, reactions from Patrick. I think it’s a way of operating that worked at a certain time. When we poked the rider where it was needed, by telling him his four truths, it made him angry and provoked the reaction of the champion who said: “I’ll show you”. Often, the pride of the champions came out and we saw the riders perform numbers quickly. Today, this type of communication is no longer done, is no longer accepted, so there are certainly errors. But I think Patrick is still old school, he uses the techniques he had before ».

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