Thomas Voeckler was the star of the 2011 Tour de France, rid­ing his yel­low Colnago C59 Italia bike as he defended the race leader’s jer­sey for ten day. This year the Frenchman is in another fight as he tries to over­come a knee injury that has also cost him a place in the French team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Voeckler is a fighter and has no plans to give up just yet but has been forced to change his hopes and ambi­tions for this year’s Tour de France. While his team­mates have gone on the attack vir­tu­ally every day and Pierre Rolland remains an over­all con­tender, Voeckler has been happy to fin­ish each stage.

“My knee prob­lem has affected my Tour de France. I was unable to ride my bike for 12 out of 22 days before the Tour de France. That’s a lot and has affected my form,” he told French news­pa­per L’Equipe.

“Fortunately it’s not get­ting any worse and so I’ll take things one day at a time. I shouldn’t feel too sorry for myself, there are guys who are all smashed up after crashes. I don’t want to aban­don the race but I have to be rea­son­able. Last year, Christophe Kern wanted to keep rid­ing and it cost him sev­eral months of the season.”

“I won’t be a tourist, that’s for sure. I don’t like to give up on my goals but some­times you don’t have a choice. At Team Europcar we’ll work for Pierre Rolland. I’ll see how I feel later in the race and see if I can do something.”

Like all of France and around the world, we can only say one thing: Allez Thomas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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