After scouting the Tour de Flanders route last week, Julien Alaphilippe of Dečuninck-Quick Step headed to the French Alps on Wednesday to scout several mountains that will appear on this year's Tour de France route.

The 28-year-old Frenchman was scheduled to compete in his first Tour de Flanders in April, but the Belgian one-day classic was postponed until October due to a coronavirus outbreak. Therefore, this year's Tour de France will be held from August 20 to September 30, before the "spring" classics such as Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Alaphilippe, along with teammates Dries Devenance and Luxembourg road race champion Bob Jungels, will start especially in Grenoble, with the Madeleine pass located between the two ski resorts of Meribel and Courchevel and the summit finish He spoke in detail about stage 17 of the Tour, which features the Pass de la Roze, which has never been used as a summit finish.

"It was another great day. The final climb to the top of the Col de la Rozée was outrageous," Alaphilippe wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, adding a photo of himself and his teammates posing in a giant "Anna and the Snow Queen 2" ("La Reine des Neiges 2" in French) photo frame.

"Coco.

"Only a great champion can win the Col de la Rose," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said of stage 17 on the race website.

Midway through the 168-km stage on September 16, or just four days after the finish in Paris, the peloton must tackle the 17.1-km-long Madeleine pass, which already has an average gradient of 8.4%.

But as Het Nieuwsblad pointed out on Wednesday, Alaphilippe last crossed the summit of the Madeleine Pass in 2018, when it was last used on the Tour route, a full 12 months before he surprised the Tour last year by wearing the leader's jersey for two weeks He was the first rider.

Two years ago, Alaphilippe was chasing the point on the Madeleine that would eventually earn him the "King of the Mountains" polka-dot jersey. But behind the success of the 2019 Tour, which sent France into a jubilant frenzy, Alaphilippe had no immediate chance, only to lose the yellow jersey to eventual race winner Egan Bernal on stage 19, which was shortened due to a landslide in the French Alps, two days after the race ended He began to think that he had a good chance.

While some may see his recon ride this week as a sign of his intent to try for a good overall finish, of course, there is also the possibility that Alaphilippe is looking to add a fifth Tour stage win to his ever-growing palmares, with two wins each in the last two Tours, or that he is looking to add another polka-dot jersey to his wardrobe. jersey to his wardrobe.