Cycling Update: A Frenchman Leads After the Pyrenees

Back in 2004 a plucky young Frenchman named Thomas Voeckler found himself in Yellow after he finished a stage far ahead of the lead pack in a breakaway group.  A guy in the right place at the right time.  No one thought he would hold Yellow through the mountains and people had fun watching the plucky young man fight his way in the mountains, tearing himself inside out to keep the Yellow jersey. 

It lasted for a bit and then reality kicked in and Voeckler became a guy we all expected to be a footnote in the history books.  Funny thing is though Voeckler has had a very solid cycling career.  In some ways I believe that experience made Voeckler who he is today.  When he survived in the mountains longer than anyone expected, when he pushed himself far beyond what he believed he was capable of physically doing I think it changed him.  Jacky Durand once said the difference between the guy that wins the race and the guy that gets second, is that the guy who wins was willing to suffer more for it.  I think Voeckler learned in 2004 that he could suffer beyond anything he could imagine and he's been a solid cyclist ever since. 

All that being said no one has ever imagined Voeckler for a Tour champion or even a podium finisher, but the other day he fulfilled what I think was his own dream.  He went out in a breakaway group and once again grabbed the Yellow jersey.  This time though everyone knew who Voeckler was and this time he didn't luck into it, he planned it and made it happen.  He did this before all the big mountain stages in the Pyrenees and he along with everyone else assumed that by the end of the Pyrenees he would no longer be in Yellow, but everyone was wrong.  He's still there, he still has a decent lead, and he just proved today that he could survive one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour with the top GC contenders. 

You'll often hear it said that the Yellow jersey gives the wearer wings and you can understand it when you watch how hard someone like Voeckler works to keep it.  Let's take a look at the stage details for today's race to get a sense of what Voeckler had to survive. 

 

That's a lot of mountains and this race finished up the same climb that Voeckler so famously defended on in 2004.  The difference is back then he came in barely managing to keep the lead, today he did it with apparent ease. 

This has made for a lot of compelling conversation today following the stage.  The big question of course is what has changed since 2004 which has allowed Voeckler to remain on top? 

Of course as you would expect there is no one answer.  For one thing Voeckler is a much better climber now than he was then and a much stronger rider now than he was then.  He has more confidence, more support from his team, etc.  For another thing the sport is much cleaner than it was in 2004.  As Voeckler pointed out today they went up the climb two minutes slower than they did in 2004.  Two minutes is a big chunk of time in a cycling finale and does imply that the sport is much cleaner today than it was in 2004.  There is also the question of no Lance Armstrong.  He was the guy who flew up this climb seven years ago, and there is certainly no equivalent to him in this race right now.  Alberto Contador is hurt and has already raced the Giro and so he's unable to be as aggressive as he normally would, and the Schleck's don't seem to be in the same top condition as they were last year, so there really isn't a top alpha climber to take the jersey away from Voeckler. 

Now that Voeckler has survived the Pyrenees the big question is how far can he take it, and that's what we'll all be watching to see.

1	Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar	61:04:10
2	Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek	0:01:49
3	Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team	0:02:06
4	Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek	0:02:15
5	Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale	0:03:16
6	Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi	0:03:44
7	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard	0:04:00
8	Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD	0:04:01
9	Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo	0:05:46
10	Kevin De Weert (Bel) Quickstep Cycling Team	0:06:18