Stage 16 - V Is For Voeckler

Thomas Voeckler is the only thing making the 2012 Tour de France even worth watching. The plucky little Frenchman led over all 4 epic Pyrenean climbs last night, romping away to a stage victory and getting himself the lead in King of the Mountains jersey classification in the process. It was a ride and performance truly worthy of the great race, something we have not seen enough of in the 2012 edition. Voeckler was victorious after outlasting the day’s 38-man strong break, winning by over a minute and a half from Chris Anker Sorenson with Gorka Izaguirre third.

There was also a shake up in the GC as Cadel Evans was dropped on the final climb of the Col de Peyresourde and lost over 4 mintues to the leaders. He was later found to have ‘intestinal issues’ which is cycling code for destroying the toilet on the team bus after the race. He has dropped from 4^th to 8^th overall and now actually trail Tejay Van Garderen his teammate in the overall standings. TJ has been quick to declare that BMC now has co-leaders which is a nice little punch in the kidneys for the defending champ. TJVG has increased his lead in the Youth classification to 3:48 from Thibault Pinot. The podium now looks settled as Wiggins-Froome-Nibali (in that order), as an attack from Nibali on the Peyresourde initially dropped the entire peleton, only for Froome to again drag Wiggins back to the Italian’s wheel by the top of the climb. That elite trio finished around 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the favourites.

For mine the other GC contenders have got their tactics all wrong this year. A single attack on the final climb has proven insufficient to dent the strength of the Team Sky armada. The only chance they had was to hit Sky again and again to see if they could shatter the team and Wiggins on one of the earlier climbs, and put real time into him. But instead they led Sky dictate the pace over the first three Cols and by the time they got to the Peyresourde it was too late. It is this lack of ingenuity that has made this Tour an absolute procession for Wiggins and he has been basically served the race on a platter.

That is the beauty and contrast of Thomas Voeckler though. He is old school and rode the day’s stage without a race radio as he wanted to let his body, mind and instinct do the talking – which it did to aplomb. He is arguably the second greatest hero of the Tour de France over the last decade, behind only Lance Armstrong in his important to the race. He will be a sad loss to world (and especially French) cycling when his career comes to an end. He now leads the mountains classification by 4 points from Frederick Kessiakoff (the previous leader) who was also in the days break but crumbled over the last 2 climbs. The only interest left in the race for me this year is to see if Voeckler can hold on to the polka dot jersey.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Thomas Voeckler

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock McLean Tweet of The Day

@saddleblaze – Jean-Rene Bernaudeau on Voeckler: “There aren’t enough superlatives to use for what Thomas has achieved. It’s like winning a monument.”