Voeckler back to his best at the Tour de France

Thomas Voeckler is back! In 2011 the Team Europcar team leader became a hero at the Tour de France as he fought to defend the leader’s yel­low jer­sey. This year Voeckler has been strug­gling with a knee injury but showed his panache and nat­ural aggres­sion by win­ning the test­ing moun­tain stage to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.

Voeckler and all the Team Europcar rid­ers are using the new-look Colnago C59 Team Edition bike from the 2013 Colnago col­lec­tion. He gave the bike a vic­to­ri­ous bap­tism, con­firm­ing it is a per­fect race bike.

Voeckler made sure he was in the break­away of the stage and then was one of the strongest rid­ers on the climbs. He was the first over the Col du Grand Colombier and the Col de Richemond, pick­ing up a total of 28 points and so tak­ing the lead in the climber’s competition.

Voeckler was in the front group after the long descent to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine and then chased after late attack­ers Jens Voigt and Dries Devenyns. He passed them in the final kilo­me­tre, had the strength to make it to the fin­ish and win alone. He waved one hand in an emo­tional vic­tory salute.

“I’m 33 years old, this is my tenth Tour de France and so I fully appre­ci­ate what I’ve man­aged to achieve. Taking the polka-dot climber’s jer­sey is great but I also wanted to win the stage too. I got it!” he said.

“Everyone doubted that the prob­lem with my knee was true. But I had eight days off the bike at home before the Tour de France. It was an amaz­ing feel­ing when I crossed the line.  My knee hurts, every­thing hurts but it’s worth it.”