"C'est le sommet (This is the summit)," Julien Alaphilippe said softly, looking down at the rainbow band around his chest. If winning the World Championships meant the pinnacle of his career, winning on the course in Imola was all about the summit of the Cima Galisterna.

That point and the finish were a little over 11 km apart, but Alaphilippe had to get there alone, or at least without the favorite, Wout Van Aert. Alaphilippe knew from experience that the Belgian would be unbeatable in a sprint competition in the Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Last month in Milan-San Remo, Alaphilippe was unable to shake him off in the poggio and lost a duel in the Via Roma.

As the lead group approached the steepest part of the Galisterna, Alaphilippe looked behind and saw Van Aert clinging tightly to his wheel. Alaphilippe climbed out of the saddle and accelerated furiously to pass Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland). He looked around again and saw Van Aert's handlebars were loose. He took another kick and the gap opened.

"When I saw Wout was there on the last climb, I gave it my maximum effort to the summit," Van Aert said. From there to the finish was long."

On day two of the Tour de France, after his victory in Nice, Alaphilippe was again unable to grab acceleration. He had plenty of sweat, but none of the inspiration that colored his remarkable 2019. But on the most important day of the season, Alaphilippe produced a performance to rival his remarkable solo victory in last year's Tour and Epernay.

His 8-second lead at the summit doubled to 16 seconds with 7km to go. Five strong cyclists, Van Aert, Kwiatkowski, Marc Hirschi (Switzerland), Primoš Roglic (Slovenia), and Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) chased as hard as they could, but could not pull away from Alaphilippe, who crossed the finish line 25 seconds ahead of them.

"It was a dream race," Alaphilippe said. But the rainbow jersey is something else, and it's hard to describe. It was the race that gave me the most dreams. It's hard to explain how I feel. It's my career dream come true."

During the performance of La Marseillaise, Alaphilippe's eyes were moist with tears as he stood on the podium. Like Nice, his thoughts were of his father Joe, who died in late June.

"Everyone has difficult moments in life. You have to find the strength to get up when you get hit. I always had that strength and it helped me today," Alaphilippe said.

"Days like today remind me of the people close to me, the work of my team, and the loss of my father. It's been a strange year."

Alaphilippe became the first French world champion since Laurent Brochard in 1997, filling a 23-year gap and, inevitably, was asked if he was looking to become the first Frenchman to win his home Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985. During a dizzying two weeks last summer, Alaphilippe was poised to end this torment in the most surprising of circumstances. But Alaphilippe insisted that he had no intention of trying to win the Tour overall.

"For now. At least not in the short term," Alaphilippe said. 'For the last few years, I've had my sights set on the World Championships. It's special to have achieved that. The goal of winning the Tour de France is not in my mind at the moment. It will take me a while to realize the jersey I'm carrying now. "

When Alaphilippe won yellow early in this year's Tour, for a time it looked like another instant GC challenge, but three days later he lost the lead with a time penalty and quickly dropped out of contention in the Pyrenees. by the third week, his Tour was also a training camp for the World Championships. By the third week, his Tour seemed to be doubling as a training camp for the World Championships.

"After last year's Tour, this year's Tour was really different. To be honest, I was really happy to win in Nice. After that I did my best for the team, but my focus was always on the World Championships. Today my dream came true."

Alaphilippe will wear the rainbow band for the first time on Wednesday in Flèche Wallonne and will then race a series of weekends in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Amstel Gold Race, and Tour de Flanders. It's a race of discovery for me. The main goal is to discover and have fun," he said of his Ronde debut, but on Sunday evening, Alaphilippe saw only rainbows, not the charcoal gray skies of the Flanders Ardennes.

"I don't see this victory as a kind of revenge," he said. It's been a year of peaks and valleys."