Top French cyclist Julian Alaphilippe has told Soudal-Quick Step he is leaving at the end of the season, team boss Patrick Lefevere revealed on Saturday.
“Julian called me this week to tell me he was leaving,” Lefevere told Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad.
“He’d been thinking about it at night for weeks and it had been making him sick, but he told me he’s leaving the team,” said Lefevere.
Alaphilippe is a two time world champion who enjoyed a tilt at the Tour de France title in 2019 with 14 days in the leader’s yellow jersey.
But he has lost his place as the star man at the Belgian team with the arrival of local rider Remco Evenepoel.
Alaphilippe, 32, won a stage at the Giro d’Italia this season completing a set of wins in each of the Grand Tours.
It was a stylish win after a break of over 120km and marked the end of a troubled period that started when he hit a tree at the 2022 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
