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Double World Champion Alaphilippe to Begin 2024 at Tour Down Under

Double world champion Julian Alaphilippe will begin his 2024 campaign at the Tour Down Under. Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP
Double world champion Julian Alaphilippe will begin his 2024 campaign at the Tour Down Under. Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP
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Double World Champion Alaphilippe to Begin 2024 at Tour Down Under

Double world champion Julian Alaphilippe will begin his 2024 campaign at the Tour Down Under. Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP
Double world champion Julian Alaphilippe will begin his 2024 campaign at the Tour Down Under. Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

Double cycling world champion Julian Alaphilippe will begin his 2024 season at the Tour Down Under next month, event organizers said Tuesday.
A six-time stage winner at the Tour de France, Alaphilippe won back-to-back men's world road race crowns in 2020 and 2021 but has been plagued by injuries since.
"I am very happy to be returning to Australia," said the 31-year-old Alaphilippe, who previously raced the event in 2014 on his professional debut.
The Tour Down Under for men and women will take place in and around Adelaide next month, with the men's race from January 16-21, featuring the brutal Willunga Hill climb twice and finishing on an ascent to Mount Lofty.
"There are many undulating roads and tough climbs throughout various stages of this race," added Alaphilippe, who won the King of the Mountains jersey at the 2018 Tour de France.
"I'm particularly excited to revisit Willunga Hill along with Mount Lofty for the first time," added Alaphilippe, who will be one of the favorites for the race leader's ochre jersey.
The Soudal Quick-Step rider is a one-day race specialist, but he has won two stage races -- the 2016 Tour of California and the 2018 Tour of Britain.
He came agonizingly close to winning the Tour de France in 2019, losing the yellow jersey with just three days to go.
Race director Stuart O'Grady said of the Frenchman: "He is a true champion of our sport, and a born entertainer on a bike. We can't wait for him to race in Australia's greatest cycling race."
Alaphilippe is on the comeback trail after suffering broken ribs and a collapsed lung in a high speed crash in April 2022 and then injuring his knee in a tumble at the Tour of Flanders in March this year.
The women's Tour Down Under takes place from January 12-16.

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Workers Take Down Olympic Rings from Eiffel Tower – for Now

Tourists sit on the Olympic rings displayed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)
Tourists sit on the Olympic rings displayed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)
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Workers Take Down Olympic Rings from Eiffel Tower – for Now

Tourists sit on the Olympic rings displayed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)
Tourists sit on the Olympic rings displayed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

Workers removed the Olympics logo from the Eiffel Tower in the early hours of Friday, returning the beloved monument to its familiar form -- but perhaps only temporarily.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised to build new Olympic rings and return them to the landmark as a tribute to the hugely successful Olympic Games held in the capital during July and August.

The proposal has polarized opinion in the French capital and has been criticized by descendants of the tower's designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups.

After initially suggesting the new rings should be permanent, Hidalgo has proposed they remain on the city's world-renowned symbol until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

Workers operating multiple large cranes removed the 30-tonne steel rings from between the first and second floors of the tower during the early hours of Friday morning.

They were first installed just under four months ago, on June 7, and will now be melted down and recycled.

The new rings, which the International Olympic Committee is expected to pay for, would be lighter versions of the originals and less prominent, according to a deputy Paris mayor, Pierre Rabadan.

"In my opinion, it would be better to put them somewhere else because it's a Parisian monument and it's not right that it becomes an advertising medium for an event that is now over," Hugo Staub, a French tourist at the tower on Friday, told AFP.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, a longtime critic and opponent of Hidalgo, has also cast doubt over the idea, saying the mayor's proposal would need to respect procedures protecting historic buildings.

But others felt regret at losing a visual reminder of an enchanted period in Paris and expressed support for the idea of replacements.

"They were a bit large so it's better to put small ones that can remain for a few years," said Gabriel, a French volunteer at the Games, who was at the foot of the tower on Friday. "It would be symbolic and a great souvenir."