#voeckler

View On WordPress

C’est lors de la conférence de presse organisée le 30 juin que Thomas Voeckler, le vendéen est apparu aux côtés de Michel Callot, président de la Fédération Française de Cyclisme. Il prend donc la succession de Cyrille Guimard qui était manager depuis juin 2017. L’ancien maillot jaune du Tour reste tout de même consultant pour France.tv et ASO.

""I did say to myself, one day, 'maybe I'll go to a foreign team'," Voeckler reveals. "It has to be said, for several years – and things have changed a bit since – foreign teams were more professional, in terms of training, equipment, and things, than French teams. But time went on, and I always felt at home in this team, and I never found a good reason, the right reason, to change teams. So I carried on." [..] One theory that became popularised in the post-Festina haze was that of a 'cyclisme à deux vitesses' – cycling at two speeds. The French, it was said, had cleaned up their act, and struggled to compete as large swathes of the international peloton continued to dope. "That did us no good at all, that state of mind, always saying that," says Voeckler, with a mix of anger and embarrassment. "Yes, they were very complicated years for French cycling, but it would be unjust to say, because I'm French, that the French respect the rules and not foreigners. Then you have the other guys saying 'ah, the French, they're taking us all for cheats'. Yes, there were cheats, but also, maybe, French cheats. "You have to accept that you're not going to have a Bernard Hinault coming through every year. You have generations. In my generation, we had [Sylvain] Chavanel, [Sandy] Casar, [Pierrick] Fedrigo, but there was a generational gap. In the last few years we've seen that the French reservoir is much stronger." [..] "If ever you throw in the towel, they win. They win twice. So, no, I never had difficulty, psychologically, accepting it. I've never thought myself incapable of competing. I've always taken that out of my head because if you start thinking in a race 'so-and-so is stronger than me, he has to be doping', what does that achieve? I've never let that cross my mind." Voeckler takes heart in his belief that he leaves the sport in a far better state than which he found it nearly 17 years ago. "There was a cycling at two speeds," he acknowledges, "before the whereabouts system, before the biological passport, before EPO and blood transfusions were detectable. For sure, there were two, even three, speeds. "Today, I think the proportion is completely inverse. It can't be said that there are no longer problems with cycling, but if we're still finding things from time to time it's also because we're looking properly. I really think, after seeing the old days, that cycling is in a much better state of health."“

Le dernier carnet de route de Thomas Voeckler

(via Cyclingtips—in a piece that also mentioned certain bike race video recaps of some repute)