In praise of Thomas Voeckler

steviedonut

avalon wrote:

Anyone who gets over the line before the ego that is named Cavendish is OK in my book.

me and you both.
Great win by TV yesterday

markwalker

Dave_1 wrote:

A great athlete who has had gran tour wins stolen off him by Armstrong. I thought (and you all know) his leading the 2004 TDF was a pot luck break away that didn't get chased down...not brute force riding off the front when Ullrich and LA were going for it...still they were just good responders to doping eh..

TV has done nothing much in his career and that is the bikeradar rule...show respect for the relatively minor winners and trash the big winners of the GTs (that really sucks!)

cut the favouritism out guys and show some respect for the winners in cycling's big events.. :

rofl

its normaly me that makes tool statements

tarquin_foxglove

"Mark" Voeckler according to the sports guy on R4 this morning. Half of me thinks it was a deliberate ploy to try & interest the British public in cycling.

zippypablo

"Mark Vo Eckler" on Radio 1 this morning :roll:

Why are people (avalon, steviedonut) happy to see Cav beat?
So he's got an ego, he's also very good. Can't we appreciate a British rider enjoying success and being one of the best?

I enjoyed Voeckler's win tho and Jens congratulating him shows why he's so popular too.

don key

zippypablo wrote:

"Mark Vo Eckler" on Radio 1 this morning :roll:

Why are people (avalon, steviedonut) happy to see Cav beat?
So he's got an ego, he's also very good. Can't we appreciate a British rider enjoying success and being one of the best?

I enjoyed Voeckler's win tho and Jens congratulating him shows why he's so popular too.

I think there may be an expedition that he, Cavalon, should be like us and adopt camp Captain Manneringisms or possibly Prick Emerys Goebbels goat stepping.The fruth is that the Misle of Yarn's a different world and boys and girls are demarkdated at birth and no by the gender reallignment board when they are 25 years old . Once his drawls bopped he was a made man, not maid Marion no more, no more, no more, no more.

Meds1962

In the preview to yesterday's stage in pro cycling's tour preview mag, they actually refer to TV's break in 04 that put him in the yellow jersey, because the stage profiles were similar.

knedlicky

One of the reasons Voeckler is liked by the public in France is that some say he’s very approachable and willing to talk to people, unlike (which I’ve heard and which surprises me) Moreau. And unlike Hinault during his cycling days - although I’d say that was no longer true for Hinault from the two occasions in the last 5 years I’ve encountered him live.
Voeckler is loved in France for his competitive spirit, but also laughed at because he’s known for often chasing a breakaway only 10 km into a race, only to find that 5 km further down the road he’s exhausted and absorbed back into the peloton (although this approach obviously sometimes works too).

But not everyone likes him. During the last Tour, when one of the drivers of the ambulances which accompany the Tour was interviewed about which riders he’d found the most pleasant, he answered Sylvain Chavanel, and former rider Didier Roux. He put Voeckler amongst the more disagreeable ones, saying Voeckler was very pretentious. Others say (although I don’t think it comes over in TV interviews) he’s very egoistic.

Eitherway, together with his competitive nature, that might be the reason why Voeckler is the sometimes the butt of jokes on French cycling forums. Like in the Tour last year, when he was dropped on a small climb, forum contributors wrote he purposely let it happen so he could fool everyone and that he’ll make up the ground in the Alps. Similarly, when he was 1 hr 30 mins back in the GC and someone wrote he may now start to doubt he’ll win the Tour, others soon replied, ‘No, he won’t, he’s just been playing very tactical’.

On last year’s rest day, it was joked that, inspired by Armstrong’s manner of hard training, Voeckler rode the next two stages in one go to reconnoitre them, but without food or drink, and then partied the night away. It was said he did this partly to harden himself for the last week of the Tour, and partly to get so fatigued that next day the opposition would be able to get further ahead of him in the GC, thus giving the last week of the Tour more suspense (‘Will Voeckler catch them up and win the Tour, or not’).

As for his anti-doping stance, he is sometimes a bit silly. In the last Tour, when Ricco was still in the race, Voeckler chose not to follow Ricco’s wheel on one stage. He later said, it was because he didn’t want to be tarred with the same brush (i.e. accused of doping), which he felt he would be, if he had followed.

Although Voeckler (who was more critical of LA than many when the lab results from 1999 were made known) wasn’t enthusiastic to hear of LA’s return, he didn’t say anything against it, and this led to jokes on the cycling forums, like Voeckler supposedly not having spoken against LA because he’d been missing a true opponent since 2004 when it took 10 days for LA to wrench the yellow jersey from him. And that Voeckler didn’t put up a fight in 2005, only because he wanted LA to end his career on a high note. But now with LA back, the Armstrong-Voeckler battle will be like Anquetil-Poulidor, and 2009 will be the Tour of Voeckler, LA not able to follow his wheel.
The jokes about the rivalry between Voeckler and Armstrong were also in posts made during the recent Giro, where count was kept of which of the two came out better in what were judged, with hindsight, the most important stages – obviously Voeckler won, 3-0.

In an interview after the Giro, Voeckler said he didn’t know what secret LA had to have managed so well, which probably means Voeckler hasn’t changed his mind about LA. He also said LA blatantly avoided the simplest greeting to both him and several other riders, i.e. LA snubbed him/them (so LA clearly knows who his friends are, and they don't include Voeckler).

simon_e

I don't know much about him him but always look out for him - I think of those days in yellow when he showed such grit. From what I've seen I like Tommy V. He tries hard. He endears himself to the TV audience (if not to ambulance drivers).

This forum seems awash with malcontents. A 'lesser' rider wins a stage and there are people lining up to throw rotten tomatoes. If you don't think much of his tactics fine but that doesn't make him bad. I'd say he launched his attack at the right time yesterday. How could he not 'deserve' the win because he rides the way he does? He crossed the line first in the biggest cycle race in the world.

You say Sastre only won the Tour last year because of Alpe d'Huez? Utter rubbish. No-one wins a 3 week grand tour on one stage (except Oscar, maybe? But then again the peloton let him do it).

When Cavendish wins someone else has a dig because they don't like him either. Why is that, is it not 'fair' to be faster than anyone else in a sprint? Or is it his self-confidence and pride in his work? That seems to be something so many Brits have a problem with. Jealous? Insecure? I don't know.

I don't get it. It could be argued our sports stars hold a mirror up to ourselves. Hard to believe, but it is possible to refrain from posting if you don't have something constructive to say... but that would mean a lot fewer messages on this board. I'm not saying never criticise anyone, but I find a disappointing excess of 'spouting before thinking'.

steviedonut

zippypablo wrote:

"Mark Vo Eckler" on Radio 1 this morning :roll:

Why are people (avalon, steviedonut) happy to see Cav beat?
So he's got an ego, he's also very good. Can't we appreciate a British rider enjoying success and being one of the best?

I enjoyed Voeckler's win tho and Jens congratulating him shows why he's so popular too.

he comes across as being extremely rude,arrogant,unpleasant and disrespectful.this is why i dislike him,how he is as a cyclist(the fastest sprinter in the world as im sure youll all agree) or what nationality he is is irrelevant to me and all the window dressing in the world by the british cycling press,eurosport and ITV 4-"hes actually a really nice guy etc" isnt going to change my mind.

simon_e

steviedonut wrote:

he comes across as being extremely rude,arrogant,unpleasant and disrespectful.

Is it arrogant to know you're the fastest in the world and unashamed of it? I'd call it confidence. He doesn't do the prima-donna thing (yet).

I had my doubts about him a year or two ago, but if you listen carefully he responds to criticism. He doesn't make claims he can't back up. He has made mistakes (like riding past Cippo one-legged) and is prepared to apologise for them.

I quite like the recent digs at Garmin (he made a point of saying that it's not aimed at the riders), it would be interesting if it provoked Vaughters into responding. The "riding like juniors" comment was just comical and I certainly wouldn't take it seriously if I was in the peloton. I think he is somewhat prone to bluntness, especially at the end of a long stage, but I still don't think it's arrogance. However, if you don't like what you see I can understand that.

dougzz

I usually find huge amusement in the failure of the French in breakaways. But Voeckler was fantastic, I was willing him home. Go Tom.........