Julien Alaphilippe did not want to talk about his ambitions for the 2020 Tour de France, but nevertheless recognized that the route announced in Paris on Tuesday was a perfect fit for him.

Alaphilippe had his sights set on a stage win at the 2019 Tour, winning two, but ended up in the yellow jersey two days after Paris. He eventually fell back to fifth place, but his horizons were broadening.

Alaphilippe was one of the riders who watched race director Christian Prudhomme announce next year's 21 stages at the Palais des Congrès on Tuesday. The course is relentlessly hilly, but he liked what he saw.

Starting in Nice on the Côte d'Azur, the 2020 Tour de France will venture into the hills early, with several key summit finishes before reaching the Pyrenees on the first weekend. After a few stages on the east coast, the race heads back through the Massif Central to the Jura Mountains (with a summit finish in the Grand Colombier) and then to the Alps. The climax is a 36 km time trial in the Vosges Mountains, finishing on the summit of La Planche des Belle Fils.

"The Tour is a joy to ride through the heart of France, especially through Chatel-Guyon and Clermont-Ferrand. Especially Châtel-Guyon and Clermont-Ferrand are very close to my home. And it's a hard stage, so it's a good thing," Alaphilippe told reporters backstage at the Palais des Congrès.

"There are a lot of really difficult stages in this Tour. It's very hard at the start and it's hard all the way to the last time trial. It's a really unprecedented route, there are surprises and it's impossible to predict the scenario. It's very good."

After this year's success, the big question surrounding Alaphilippe is whether he will return to the Tour and try to win the overall.

"It's still a long way off, I'm not thinking about that," he countered.

"On paper, yes, there are many stages that are suitable for me. But I'm still a long way off. I need to study parkour in more detail and scout out stages to get a clearer idea. For now it's hard to say.

"It's a route with surprises waiting for me and I like it, but I have plans and ambitions ...... It's not time for that yet."