World champion Julian Alaphilippe faces a challenge to return to fitness in time for the Tour de France, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team boss Patrick Lefevere has said. The 29-year-old suffered a collapsed lung and multiple fractures in a crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
> Julian Alaphilippe suffers collapsed lung and multiple fractures in huge crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Writing in Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, Lefevere said there is a "big question" about whether the team's leader, who has won stages and worn the yellow jersey in each of the last three editions of the Tour, will be on the startline in Copenhagen.
"The Tour starts on Friday 1 July, a week earlier than usual. That is of course not an advantage," Lefevere said.
"If, in the most favourable case, he is back on his bike in mid-May, he still has six weeks. Julian has to recover from a collapsed lung, a broken shoulder blade and two broken ribs, which have also been displaced. He's not allowed to move for three weeks, which is agony for him.
"A Tour with or without Alaphilippe makes a big difference, commercially and sportingly. What we are definitely not going to do is use Remco Evenepoel as a stand-in."
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