Dear Julian,
It’s 6:53 and I’m already crying the way I haven’t cried in a very long time, because I just read the news of your retirement. You did this the same way you’ve done everything in life: on your own path, sidestepping every kind of norm and announcing it completely on your own terms.
I think I can say on behalf of all of us that we cannot be grateful enough that you wrote cycling, that you took on a leading role between the two eras (the Sky era and the Pogačar era) and that you showed me and millions of people what the true essence of this sport is. What does it take for someone to be successful? You need an endless supply of charisma, a big dose of belief, the rider himself has to be strong, and you need perseverance…
But perhaps what is needed most of all - and this belongs more to the alignment of circumstances - is the ability to make us ordinary mortals believe that the impossible exists. What happened on the 2019 Tour is the most striking example of this. What happened on the Fano stage of the 2022 Giro is almost in the same category. Back-to-back world championship titles. There are so many, so many memories one can list about him where he truly managed, somehow, to bend the gravitational field until it became sufficiently his own.
And now he is saying goodbye. And all I hope is that Saint-Amand-Montrond's very own son, winner of 45 professional races, leaves such a mark on the sport that it will be eternal, one that will inspire not only the current young generation, but their children’s and grandchildren’s generations as well. This sport is not all about strength, cycling can and must be practised only and exclusively with heart and emotion. And Julian Alaphilippe did that for 13 years wholeheartedly.
Dear Loulou,
merci pour tous.
💙🤍❤️
@allavoro_de Die Beschreibung von heute stimmt auf den Punkt! Mit Dreiviertelhose mit dem Rad zum Bäcker - geht gerade. Vor dem Bäcker in der Sonne - ich muss dringend direkt wieder ins Wasser… 🥵
@TheEXECUTlONER_ Last year in school, working part time in a record store. We played this album the whole day then.
Still love it and feel that summer!
Merz hat jetzt mit nur noch 16 % den schlechtesten jemals beim Deutschlandtrend gemessenen Zustimmungswert für einen Kanzler.
Ein guter Tag um ihn an seinen Banger zu erinnern: