Julien Alaphilippe will make the Tour de Flanders his main target this spring and will make his start to the Belgian Monument at the Classic Mallorca later this month.

Alaphilippe will start his road to the spring classics with this series of five races over five days on the largest of the Balearic Islands east of Spain.

The Frenchman confirmed his start schedule for the season at the Soudal-QuickStep team presentation on Friday, and will follow the Spanish races with the Faun-Ardèche Classic and Faun Drôme in France in February. Classic (February 25 and 26).

Alaphilippe attended the Sur-Quick Step presentation this week, but came down with the flu on Thursday evening and only attended part of the team presentation wearing a mask.

"With training camp next week ahead, it's better to be safe than sorry," he said.

"The motivation is incredibly high this year after what was a very difficult 2022. I have a lot of grinta for this season," he said, referring to this season, which has been severely interrupted by illness and crash injuries.

"I took time to recover physically and mentally and worked hard this winter to get back to the top level for the goals I set for myself. First and foremost, I want to start the season strong. We have a good calendar and I want to be at the top of every race, help the team and win

"The Cobbled Classics is my first big goal of the season. We'll see what I can do in the Ardennes, but I'm really looking forward to coming back to the cobbled classics.

"My first big goal is the Ronde van Vlaanderen. It's my favorite race and I want to do well."

Alaphilippe has not competed in Challenge Mallorca since 2014 and has only competed in the Tour de Flanders twice.

The former world champion has a spring schedule that includes cobbles and the Ardennes Classics before the summer Tour de France.

Alaphilippe will head to Italy again this spring to take on Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, which he won in 2019, and Tirreno-Adriatico, where he racked up three stage wins between 2019 and 2021.