Julian Alaphilippe Has Retired With Immediate Effect, Reports Claim

Julian Alaphilippe will not race again.

Reports from Wielerflits and L’Equipe indicate the two-time world champion has retired with immediate effect.

Alaphilippe had a contract running through 2027 and was scheduled to race the Canadian GPs next month.

However, reports Thursday suggest the 34-year-old is done.

He won’t race again this season, nor ever again.

According to L’Equipe, the recent Tour de France was the final straw for a French favorite who lost his way. Alaphilippe’s deteriorating form was plain to see in the pinnacle race of a sport that evolved without him.

Alaphilippe had hinted the writing was on the wall when he reflected on his fruitless Tour de France last month.

“Nothing is official, but don’t expect to see me again,” Alaphilippe said on stage 20 of Le Tour.

“For the past few years, I’ve felt I’m nearing the end,” he said. “In cycling, I’m not getting any younger. But in life, 34 is still young.”

It seems like nothing has changed for Alaphilippe in the weeks since the Tour.

L’Equipe reported Thursday that he has terminated his ongoing contract with Tudor Pro Cycling.

Neither Alaphilippe nor the team has confirmed that the rider has quit. Velo has reached out to the team for comment.

Ala-panache loses love for a data-driven sport

L’Equipe suggested Thursday the peloton’s king of panache lost his love for a sport he could no longer identify with.

Should the reports be true, the peloton has lost one of its recent greats.

Alaphilippe won two world titles (2020 and 2021), Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche, six Tour de France stages, and three-peated at La Flèche Wallonne.

He rocked the 2019 Tour de France with 14 days in the yellow jersey and somehow hung on for fifth overall.

In his peak years riding with Quick-Step at the turn of the decade, Lu Lu was one of the most exciting riders in the sport.

The passion-fueled puncheur blazed to 31 of his 45 career victories in the four years from 2018-2021. He could bang bars with Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel at the Tour of Flanders and hang tough with Egan Bernal at the Tour de France.

However, his form — and his results — have been tracking south for several seasons.

He and Marc Hirschi joined Tudor Pro Cycling in 2025 as a leadership tandem loaded with potential. They both faltered at the budding Swiss team.

Alaphilippe brought Tudor one victory, at the GP Québec in 2025, and achieved little else, no matter how hard he tried.

A rider driven on instinct and savvy was left behind by a peloton that rides on watts, nutrition apps, and endless altitude camps.

“The pace is faster, and the young riders are robotic,” Alaphilippe said last autumn after he won in Québec. “Everything is more meticulously planned and calculated. For them, it’s normal. Even though I’m very professional, I don’t aspire to that.

“I need that freedom, that joy of living,” he said. “That pleasure, above all!”

It seems sadly fitting that Alaphilippe’s last rolls of the dice might have been two thwarted breakaway attacks at Le Tour.

Tudor building for the future, Alaphilippe or not

Meanwhile, Tudor Pro Cycling has been building for the future.

The Swiss team handed a long-term contract to Arnaud De Lie and extended its deals with veterans Matteo Trentin and Marco Haller. The squad also recently pinned down 23-year-old Marco Brenner through 2030 after the German talent won the Tour de Pologne.