Julian Alaphilippe Yesterday I rode all over our town on a variety of errands. In tow, quite literally, was my twenty-month-old daughter. I often pull her behind me in a bright green two-seater trailer .
Sometimes the trailer is filled with her toys. Other times, her older brother, our five-year-old, joins us. And no matter what kind of cycling shape I’m in, it often feels as though I’ve never ridden a bike before.
Any parent who considers themselves a cyclist knows the grind well. No matter how well you ride alone or how finely tuned your bike and trailer are, no matter if you’re riding flats or, in my case, ceaseless rollers , you are essentially pulling an anchor around. To quote a local joke I hate, “They don’t call it Chapel Flat.” Video player poster image And so, when cycling team Soudal Quick-Step tweeted a video of their French superstar Julian Alaphilippe towing his two-year-old son Nino, I, like so many other dads and moms, felt his pain. The video shows Alaphilippe grinding up a mild grade that, riding alone, the former World Champion would certainly fly up with ease. Instead, he’s pounding hard with each pedal revolution, his torso bobbing from side to side, appearing almost as if he were in the late kilometers of Mont Ventoux .
Maybe there was a bit of mugging for the camera. Maybe Alaphilippe was playing up his struggles just a bit as his partner, Nino’s mom Marion Rousse, zoomed past with ease to […]
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