The beauty of the Tour de France is its endless regeneration. A race that seemed destined for a boring procession was again reborn on Wednesday night, as Le Tour’s true spiritual leader Thomas Voeckler staged yet another coup with a glorious victory on Stage 10, a 194.5km slog from Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine. Voeckler was the strongest of his breakaway rivals and had enough to hold by 3 seconds from Michele Scarponi with veteran Jens Voight another 4 seconds back.
There was no change to the GC, although not for lack of trying. As predicted by many, Vincenzo Nibali staged a daredevil descent off the Grand Colombier, and by the valley floor had put almost a minute into Bradley Wiggins with the help of teammate Peter Sagan who had been in the day’s break. But as was the case in an almost identical stage in the Dauphine, Wiggo’s Sky team paced him back along the valley floor, and Nibali was caught on the Col-de-Richemond. It was a brave and clever move from the Italian but the overall result is just more evidence that this year’s Tour is largely done and dusted as a contest.
It is for that reason that it is the moment’s that Voeckler is able to generate time and time again that keep the Tour alive, and in the hearts of sporting and cycling fans the world over. The plucky Frenchman has battled tendinitis all season, but still had enough courage to drag the day’s break of the Col du Grand Colombier and the Col de Richemond with little help from his rivals. In doing so he garnered himself the lead in the King of the Mountains classification, and there would be no one in the race more deserving of wearing the polka-dot jersey in Paris than Voeckler. If that wasn’t enough, his tactical nous allowed him to break clear from his rivals in the crucial closing kilometres – and hold in a desperate finish to record a famous victory – Allez Tommy!
Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins
Green Jersey – Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen
Brock McLean's Tweet of The Day
@nyvelocity - Little known fact, Voeckler's riding face is the same as his 'passing a kidney stone' face and his 'making baby Voeckler's face
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