He’s a regular animator in stages of the Tour de France and Thomas Voeckler insists that there’s reason for his attacking ways. He wants to win. Every so often it pays off…
“I knew I was better than the fourth place in the stage to Station des Rousses. On this Tour I’ve really had difficult times. The day of the stage to Gap, had it been a day in high mountains, I might be home at this hour. But I’m getting experience and after 12 Grand Tours, I know very well that we can have terrible days, and then find ourselves in great shape. That’s what I say to all young guys on the team when they are in doubt. This morning, I talked with Christopher Kern, and we said that we began to think of Paris. But in the early stage, we have both tried to attack, it motivated me, and finally the legs were very good.
“I am very proud of what I have done today. At an emotional level, what happened at the championships of France, when I came home first, was already enormous. But then win with the tricolor on the shoulders a stage of the Tour de France is extraordinary.
“It is true that I have a special way to ride, but I do not attack for the sake of attacking. It’s an attack for the victory. And when you’re not the strongest in the world, you must try many times for it to work."
