Julien Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) has won the prestigious Vélodur award for his highly successful 2019 season and unique style of aggressive racing.

The Frenchman beat Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) and Vuelta a España winner Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) to the award. He is the 2018 winner of the Best French Player award, but is the first French player to win the Velodore since Laurent Jalabert in 1995. He succeeds Alejandro Valverde, who won the 2018 title after winning the world title in Innsbruck.

Alaphilippe received 74 votes, Bernal 68, Roglic 54, and fourth-place finisher Mathieu van der Poel 33. Annemiek van Fruten was fifth with 21 votes.

Alaphilippe also won a rare double, beating out Thibault Pinot and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot for Vero magazine's 2019 French Prize. On Saturday evening, he was named French Player of the Year by the UNCP French Players Association.

"To have an incredible season and to win the Vélo d'Or is a fitting end to a great year.

"I want to thank everyone who voted that I should receive this trophy, it has been an unforgettable campaign with many great moments, from winning the Monument for the first time in March to wearing the yellow jersey for 14 days.

"My suitcase is going to be heavy because I never thought I would win two awards. But I am very proud to have won these two awards."

The Velodore Prize was created in 1992 and is awarded by the French cycling magazine Velo.

Alaphilippe won 12 races in 2019, including two stages of the Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Flèche-Wallonne, and Tour de France. He wore the yellow jersey for 14 days in the Tour de France, becoming a national hero in France, only to lose it to eventual winner Egan Bernal in the Alps when bad weather and a landslide cut short stage 19 to Tignes.

Alaphilippe finished fifth overall in Paris and was praised for his aggressive racing and exuberance.