Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) has been awarded the "super-combatif" prize for being the most aggressive rider in this year's Tour de France. Chavanel was one of two Frenchman on the Belgian team that came through in a big way to more than make up for the absence of injured team captain Tom Boonen.
Last year Chavanel missed out on an opportunity for his second Tour de France stage win when Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam) powered away from the Quick Step rider to secure victory in the thirteenth stage. He left the race disappointed, and his progression as a rider came into doubt when his early 2010 season showed he was lacking the form of the previous year.
Quick Step boss Patrick Lefevere spared the Frenchman the verbal lashing he had given to some of the Belgians on the squad, instead giving him a chance to come good without the additional pressure. Just when Chavanel looked to be riding himself back into form at the Ardennes Classics, he suffered a major setback with a crash in the final kilometer of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The incident resulted in a fractured skull, forcing him to stay off the bike for several weeks.
He worked hard during his recovery and was given a start at the Tour de Suisse. This was his opportunity to prove to the team that he should be selected to ride in the Tour.
"I shouldn't have been there, I wasn't scheduled to do the Tour de Suisse, but I took the initiative to go there," he told Sud-Ouest just be for the start of the Tour de France. "We saw every day that it [my form] was better."
It turned out to be a good decision, as Chavanel put in a good performance in Switzerland.
"I continue to climb the steps and I think I 'm close to my top form," he explained. "This is the first time I will be coming to the Tour so fresh. In May I had zero competition. I did the Tour [de Suisse in June] and French Championships [last week]. I think my top form is coming soon."
The freshness certainly paid off, as did Lefevere's patience with the Classics rider. Chavanel inked a two-year extension with the Belgian team earlier this week his part in the team's most successful Tour de France since Boonen won the green jersey in 2007.