Voeckler wins the Brabantse Pijl

Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) showed he is a favourite for the upcom­ing Ardennes clas­sics with an emphatic solo vic­tory at the Brabantse Pijl race in Belgium.

Voeckler attacked alone, 30km from the fin­ish, danc­ing up the steep climbs on his spe­cial lime-green Colnago C59 Italia bike. He suf­fered as the rain soaked the race, show­ing the pain of his effort on his face but con­tin­ued to extend his lead all the way to the line. Spain’s Oscar Freire won the sprint for sec­ond place but was 1:11 behind Voeckler.

It was Voeckler’s first win of 2012 but came at the right time, just four days before the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands.

“I wanted to go well and this kind of course suits me,” Voeckler said before climb­ing onto the winner’s podium with his son. “I was fifth a few years ago. I knew the course and knew it was bet­ter to attack because most teams didn’t have a lot of rid­ers. I didn’t think I’d make it to the fin­ish alone, I thought some rid­ers would come up. But I raced hard to gain a minute’s lead, know­ing it would men­tally crack the other riders.”

Voeckler’s dom­i­nant per­for­mance in the first hilly Belgian race of the sea­son makes him a nat­ural favourite for Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race. Voeckler Modestly played down his chances but must have a great chance in the Netherlands.

“I just want to do well, I don’t know if I can win,” he said. “Winning Brabantse Pijl doesn’t auto­mat­i­cally mean I’ll do well in Amstel. But I’ve done well in the past at Amstel and so win­ning is a goal. For now I’m just happy to win my first race of the season.”