Julian Alaphilippe finished ninth in the Trofeo Calvia, Balearic Islands, for his first race of the season, which was won by another former world champion, Rui Costa.
It was back to school this Wednesday for Julian Alaphilippe! The former double world champion was competing, like many, in his first race since the Tour of Lombardy, on the occasion of the Trofeo Calvia, the first round of a series of five one-day races taking place in Mallorca. If the teams are looking for the sun at the start of the season, whether in Australia, Argentina, Gabon or the Balearic Islands, it is above all the rain that the riders have found on Wednesday. It was finally Rui Costa who won at the end of the 150 kilometers, thus winning his first victory in the jersey of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty (the 28th of his career, after two and a half years without winning), ahead of Louis Vervaeke and Ben Healy. The three men were the last survivors of the day’s breakaway. The hunting party arrived nine seconds later, with Julian Alaphilippe in their midst, who we saw throughout the day and who did not limit his efforts. Like his Soudal-Quick Step team, who placed four riders in the final Top 10.
See you on Thursday, with Bouhanni!
“It went well, we were always well represented up front. We were even over-represented, we had to try something and we played the Louis card. He didn’t miss much. We even had Casper Pedersen behind in case of regrouping for the sprint. We gave the maximum, so no regrets. I am very happy with the race we did, it bodes well for the future “, reacted Alaphilippe at the microphone ofEurosport. We will see him again on Thursday on the occasion of the second race, the Trofeo Port d’Aludia (158km), which will also mark the return of Nacer Bouhanni to competition, more than nine months after his terrible fall in the Tour of Turkey.
CALVIA TROPHY
Final classification (Palmanova-Palmanova, 150.1km) – Wednesday January 25, 2023
1- Rui Costa (POR / Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) in 3h59″34
2- Louis Vervaeke (BEL/Soudal-Quick Step) mt
3- Ben Healy (IRL/EF Education-EasyPost) à 1″
4- Casper Pedersen (DAN/Soudal-Quick Step) at 3″
5- Axel Zingle (FRA/Cofidis) at 3″
…
