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Alaphilippe’s inclusion comes after a year away from the French Grand Tour, where he has worn the yellow jersey in each of his past three appearances.
The 31-year-old will add a different flavour to his team’s tactics next month, particularly during the opening weekend in the Basque Country where the puncheurs are expected to pounce on the early stages.
“I went on a recon of the start in Bilbao, and I can tell you it will be a beautiful and hard weekend,” Alaphilippe said in a statement from the team.
“At the beginning of the month I did a solid Dauphine, where I felt in good shape, got a win and took pleasure in riding, and the preparations went well.
“The Tour is a truly huge adventure, every day you have to fight together with the team, and has a really special atmosphere, with all the people along the roads.
“I’m ready for Le Tour.”
Despite finishing fifth overall in 2019, the general classification has never been the priority for the Frenchman who will again target stage wins alongside sprinter Jakobsen.
Jakobsen was selected ahead of Tim Merlier and will have Michael Morkov as his lead-out man as this year’s race welcomes more bunch finishes compared to previous editions.
Kasper Asgreen, Remi Cavagna, Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns and Yves Lampaert round out the team, with the latter famous for winning the opening time trial last year.
It’s a squad that must work together to achieve success over the next three weeks and director sportif Tom Steels remains hopeful it can be done.
“Julian will try to go for a stage win, as he has some nice opportunities over the three weeks of the race,” Steels said.
“While Fabio will rely on Michael to guide him in the sprints, but also on the likes of Kasper and Yves, who can keep the speed high in the bunch finishes.
“Looking over our team, we can see a group that has a lot of ambition and motivation, so we hope for a nice Tour de France.”
As expected, Remco Evenepoel was not named in Patrick Lefevere’s line-up after turning his attention to the defence of his world title in Glasgow and potentially the Vuelta a Espana.
