I remember him from the 2004 Tour by holding onto the yellow jersey for 10 days. Just when I thought he was going to lose it on a mountaintop finish, you can see his grimace as he just pushed it to cross the line and keep the jersey. With Philippe Gilbert looking like a stud through the Ardennes races, Voeckler is quietly racking up wins. Still impressive after all these years, he just keeps fighting away, from Velo News online…
Inside Cycling with John Wilcockson: Voeckler on his best year ever
By John Wilcockson
Published Apr 25th 2011 12:59 PM UTC
Europcar’s French national champion moves to six wins in 2011
Editor’s note: Every week through the 2011 road season, VeloNews editor-at-large John Wilcockson is writing about key features of the week’s racing. This 11th installment focuses on one of this season’s most prolific winners, Thomas Voeckler, the reigning French national champion.
The same afternoon that Philippe Gilbert was winning the Flèche Wallonne atop the notorious Mur de Huy last Wednesday, another French-speaking rider was taking a hilltop stage victory at the Giro del Trentino in the Dolomite mountains of Italy. That would be Thomas Voeckler, the current French national champion, notching (like Gilbert) his sixth win of the year and cementing his leadership of the 2011 UCI Europe Tour.
This has been the best season start ever for Voeckler, who most cycling fans remember as the charismatic young man who wore the yellow jersey for 10 days at the 2004 Tour de France before finally giving it up to Lance Armstrong in the Pyrénées. Seven years on, at age 31, Voeckler is more popular than ever in his home country and, along with Sylvain Chavanel, is its most successful rider.
Read on here.
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