Can it be possible that we’re about to see the first French Tour winner in 26 years?
Having predicted his own demise on each of the two Pyrénéen mountaintop finishes, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) now seems more entrenched in the yellow jersey than ever. The 31-year-old Frenchman has repeated the feat he accomplished in his first ever stint in the maillot jaune, back in 2004, by holding on to it on the Plateau de Beille. That time it was by the skin of his teeth though, while this time he was matching the big favourites pedal for pedal.
“I would lie if I said that I expected to be with the best climbers today,” he said at the finish on the Plateau de Beille. “I was trusting my [luck] to keep the jersey today. Since the stage of Luz Ardiden…that gave me great confidence, but I am really surprised to be with them at the end.
“Really…but it’s a good surprise.”
With the Pyrénées over, Voeckler can look forward to a few more days in yellow before he comes under attack again, but how far can he go? Can he really take it all the way to Paris and become the first Frenchman to win the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985?
“Well, I keep saying since the beginning that I would take the stages one by one,” Voeckler explained. “Tomorrow is a flat stage…we will have to be careful because of the wind. There are a lot of sidewinds at Montpellier. But I expect the sprinter’s teams to ride to make a bunch finish.
So, who is Thomas Voeckler anyway?
After taking that yellow jersey as a plucky 25-year-old back in 2004, when he was part of the breakaway into Chartres on stage five that was allowed more than twelve minutes, Voeckler has reverted to type.
After the nearly men like Jean-François Bernard, Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque in the late-eighties and nineties, French cycling has hit a slump. Claiming that they were facing ‘cyclisme a deux vitesses’ since the Affaire Festina, many French riders have checked their ambitions, becoming content to chase the odd gallant stage win or maybe the mountains jersey. If a Frenchman ever got to the yellow jersey, it was just to keep it warm for the American or Spaniard that would inevitably win it.
Voeckler was one of the finest proponents of this.
While there was no real way he was going to hold on to the yellow jersey in 2004, perhaps the big reason he has never come close to it since is because he never really believed it possible. He even took the lead this year with the expectation of playing a brief cameo before the mountains, but he’s surprised himself by keeping it this long; and keeping it well.
His other previous glory in the Tour has come in the shape of two stage victories, in 2009 and 2010, both of which have come in difficult circumstances. The first, stage five in 2009, saw him hold off the sprinters’ teams, having been in the breakaway all day, while the second, stage fifteen in 2010, saw him win one of the toughest stages over the Port de Balès into Bagnères-de-Luchon.
The second of those went almost unnoticed, despite him wearing the tricolore as French champion, as 'Chaingate' unfolded on the road behind him.
Voeckler is enjoying his best ever season to date, even though he has lost his blue, white and red jersey, winning the Tour du Haut Var, the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque as well as stages in the Tour Mediterranean, Paris-Nice, Cholet-Pays de Loire and the Giro del Trentino.
Taking on the big favourites
While Voeckler has been wearing the yellow jersey for much longer than he expected, the World has been waiting for the race favourites to drop him; and so far they haven’t been able to. The expected mano a mano struggle between defending champion Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) and Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) has so far failed to materialise. This has meant that the second tier of favourites, including riders like Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) has been able to compete, and Voeckler has been able to match them.
While its true that the superteam that is Leopard Trek is the strongest in the race, having thinned down the peloton on the final climbs, the Schleck brothers have not been able to finish the job.
Perhaps the first week of crashes, which thinned down the overall contenders of names like Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and the RadioShack quartet of Janez Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden, has made for a more open race. Perhaps the big crash on the road to Saint-Flour, where Voeckler took the jersey from World champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo), slowed the peloton enough to allow him into this position.
Whatever the reasons for putting him there though, after his performance in the Pyrénées, Voeckler is where he is on merit.
Using his team in a smart, economical way
On flat stages the yellow jersey’s team generally keeps the breakaway under control before handing the peloton over to the sprinters’ teams as it nears the finish. Rather than do this though, with nobody in any of the breaks that could remotely threaten Voeckler’s lead, Europcar allowed the gaps to grow, daring the sprinters’ teams to take over for most of the stage.
With very few stages giving opportunities for sprint victories, HTC-Highroad took the bait and did Europcar’s work for it. So far it’s gone well for the American team, with Mark Cavendish taking three victories, so there’s no reason to suggest that the same thing won’t happen again on the road to Montpelier on stage fifteen.
On the mountain stages the team has played a similar tactic, and it’s been Leopard Trek that has taken the responsibility to pull back breaks and wear down its rivals. Consequently, when the action has really started on the big climbs to the finish – to Luz-Ardiden and the Plateau de Beille – Voeckler has been the only leader who still has a teammate with him; Pierre Rolland has been able to look after the yellow jersey on both occasions.
It should be remembered that Europcar only exists as a team thanks to Voeckler’s presence. With the loss of Bbox Bouygues Telecom at the end 2010, team manager Jean-René Bernadeau faced a frantic search for a new sponsor, which took him until the last minute to achieve. The then French champion had already agreed terms with Cofidis, should Bernadeau be unsuccessful.
With a number of the team’s big names, including Pierrick Fédrigo, having already left, the rental car firm was brought on board on the proviso that Voeckler was staying.
With no chance of getting a first division ProTeam license Europcar is, along with all of the French teams besides AG2R La Mondiale, at the Tour on a wildcard.
The trouble might come for Europcar on the intermediate stages, to Gap and Pinerolo, where the sprinters will not be interested and the other contenders could attack. Voeckler will hope that the energy that the team has saved in the preceding days will be there for them on these stages.
More mountains on the horizon
Having negotiated the flat, then largely transitional stages to Montpelier, Gap and Pinerolo, Italy, Voeckler will be faced with the prospect of two more mountaintop finishes, to the Col du Galibier and Alpe d’Huez. These will be every bit as tough, if not tougher, than those to Luz-Ardiden and the Plateau de Beille, and he will doubtless be put under intense pressure by the race favourites.
He has already dealt with a whole load of pressure though, and has held up so far. If the big names in the race can’t come up with anything new in the Alps, there’s no reason to think that he won’t be able to handle them.
Voeckler has never ridden a strong time trial… but then he’s never had to
Should he come out of the Alps in yellow, or even close to it, Voeckler will have the matter of the 40km Grenoble time trial to negotiate. While it’s true that he has never performed against the clock, it’s also true that he’s rarely ever had to.
In 2004 he capitulated in the final 55km test in Besançon, losing 9’41” to Armstrong and losing the white jersey to Vladimir Karpets. Since then though, he has not been in a position in a race as big as the Tour when a good performance against the clock was necessary. For the also-rans in the race the final time trial is often a matter of getting around as painlessly as possible before the final show in Paris the next day.
As a unit Europcar lost 46 seconds to BMC Racing and Leopard Trek in the stage two team time trial, but only 22 to Saxo Bank-SunGard. With the Leopard Trek time largely down to the power of riders like World tine trial champion Fabian Cancellara, the only individuals at the top of the overall classification that he really needs to fear in an individual race against the clock are Evans and Contador; and only then if the defending champion recovers some form before then.
So, will there be a Frenchman on the podium in Paris?
Providing Voeckler and his Europcar team don’t completely capitulate in the Alps, he should still be close to the yellow jersey – if not actually in it – when the final time trial comes along. A good performance there could either keep, or put, him on the final Paris podium. If he’s still in yellow on Alpe d’Huez though, there’s every chance that he’ll wear it in Paris.
Should Thomas Voeckler be the first Frenchman to win the Tour since Hinault, France will embark upon the biggest party since the Revolution of 1789.