Patrick Lefevere: Soudal Quick-Step chief’s public scolding of Julian Alaphilippe ‘not acceptable’ – Dan Lloyd

Patrick Lefevere’s stinging public criticism of Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) is “just not acceptable”, says Dan Lloyd, as The Breakaway team reacted to one of the first controversies of the nascent 2024 season.

Amid injuries after being involved in several big crashes, Alaphilippe has struggled for form since winning his second road race world title in 2021.

In an interview with Belgian magazine Humo, Soudal Quick-Step boss Lefevere said “too many parties” were partly to blame for Alaphilippe’s dip and suggested that the Frenchman’s wife Marion Rousse was a negative influence.

“Julian is a good guy, but after he signed his mega contract, he no longer performed,” Lefevere said. “I like my riders, but it must remain fair.

“As you get older, you have to take more care, you have to train harder and you can’t throw your hat at it. He now has to make the click and fight for it.

“Too many parties, too much alcohol. Julian is seriously under the influence of Marion Rousse. Maybe too much.

“Julian is a young dog full of energy – you should let him cross in the yard every now and then. And you must also say this far and no further. There is still a bad boy inside him.”

, telling Lefevere to “stop talking out of turn”.

Speaking on The Breakaway during the men’s UAE Tour, Lloyd hit out at the “old school” approach of Lefevere, who has previously also publicly criticised his former rider Sam Bennett.

“He’s regularly in the headlines is Patrick Lefevere, whose latest tirade has been against former world champion and current team rider Julian Alaphilippe, but not just against Alaphilippe, against his wife Marion Rousse, who is a big personality in the sport as well,” Lloyd said.

“It’s a difficult one because this is in a magazine and it’s then been translated into English and then you see it on social media and you’re not sure quite how much of it is 100% accurate in terms of what he said originally, but he’s got enough of a history now of doing these sorts of things where you just think there’s no place for this anymore. It’s so old school.

“It has worked for him. The team has always been incredibly successful and generally the riders have their peak years when they are at Quick-Step. Before they came they weren’t as good, after they leave they are a shadow of their former selves more often than not.

“Even then, in any company now you’ve got an HR department normally and people would be going to the HR department about Patrick Lefevere because it’s just not acceptable.”

Fellow Eurosport expert Adam Blythe said it was unfair of Lefevere to judge Alaphilippe so harshly at such an early point of the season.

“The thing is with Patrick, he’s just very outspoken and I think for him he looks at this as like, ‘I’m going to make this public so it gives them a kick up the bum’,” Blythe said.

“He might have said it to him privately but he’s done this a few times where he’s tried to give them a little bit of a push but he’s just doing it in completely the wrong way.

“What’s he judging this off of? It’s February. Surely if he [Alaphilippe] was absolutely flying now, yes it’s great for the team, but then if you got later down the road to the Tour de France and he said he wasn’t ready because he was knackered because he’d been doing too much, Patrick would be fuming about that.

“I don’t think it’s fair to judge him this early on in the season and give him that amount of pressure.”