Motivation boosted by a strong season and by his victory in the Velo d’Or contest for best French rider, Thomas Voeckler is aiming to step his career up the next notch in 2011. The 31 year old recently signed a contract to stay with his BBox Bouygues Telecom team, which will be renamed after its new backer Europcar next year, and the swashbuckling attacker has a clear notion of what he wants to try to achieve.
“In Paris-Nice, if I don’t crack, I can place in the top five. At Liège, I was tenth in the group that finished near the top three riders. It is true that I want to raise my ambitions in races such as those. But I’ll have to make choices between Paris-Nice, Liège-Bastogne-Lìège, the Giro and the Tour de France,” he told Vélo magazine.
Voeckler first came to global attention when he led the Tour de France for ten days in 2004. He had started the race in the red, white and blue of French champion, but exchanged that jersey for the Maillot Jaune. Relishing the attention, he showed great courage in fighting to hold onto that jersey as long as possible. Since then, he’s been known for his plucky riding, and proved it on many occasions last year.
After getting things underway in January in the Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Voeckler showed his first sign of strong form a month later when he was third in the Tour of Sardinia. His Paris-Nice was a good one, in that he finished second overall in the mountains classification and was second and fourth on stages. He’d gladly exchange those placings to take a high finish overall next year, though.
His form was consistent throughout the season; in April, he performed well in Brabantse Pijl (6th) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège; in May, he was solid in the Giro d’Italia, netting second on a stage and 23rd overall. June brought 12th overall in the Route du Sud and another French road race title, while in July he picked up a stirring Tour de France stage win in Bagnères de Luchon.
That would wear most riders out, but he wasn’t quite finished; on September first, he soloed to victory in the ProTour GP de Québec, the highest-ranked of his season performances.
Over the years, he’s built up a reputation as a battler; a rider who digs deep to achieve his successes. He feels that’s his biggest strength.
“I don’t have any major physical gifts,” he says, modestly. “I do not have more talent than others, but I was able to do full seasons and so I made steady progress. I think I reached a new level in 2009, then afterwards, I evolved mentally.”
An earlier key point came seven years ago, though. “The trigger occurred in the Tour of Luxembourg in 2003. I won, and I knew I could do more than just keep my place on the team,” he explained.
“I made the choice to work on my strong points such as my explosiveness, not on my weaknesses. Being average everywhere doesn’t pay off.”
That choice has worked out very well for him; he’s much in demand, being chased hard by Cofidis and others until finally opting to remain with longtime team manager Jean Rene Bernaudeau. With Pierrick Fedrigo gone, he’ll be the clear leader on the Europcar squad in 2011; the goal now is to capitalise on that and to ratchet his performances up higher than before.