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Voeckler

Mar 4, 2012
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I don't think he's clean - but he's not THAT ridiculous. Sky are more than happy to let the breakaways go, so he only has to beat the guys in the break, and he has a history of being a good climber.

Also, we all know how he loves to exaggerate - the pain faces and all. So, maybe he overplayed the gravity of the knee injury, so he doesn't have any GC pressure on a course that does not suit him and to be able to focus on stage wins.
 
Oct 16, 2010
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Cancellator said:
I don't think he's clean - but he's not THAT ridiculous. Sky are more than happy to let the breakaways go, so he only has to beat the guys in the break, and he has a history of being a good climber.

Also, we all know how he loves to exaggerate - the pain faces and all. So, maybe he overplayed the gravity of the knee injury, so he doesn't have any GC pressure on a course that does not suit him and to be able to focus on stage wins.

ah, so he only has to beat a couple of clean guys who don't really want to win Tour stages anyway.
 
His victory salute today was very similar to this:

_40382815_virenque_win300.jpg


Something's going on here.... :eek:
 
Cancellator said:
I don't think he's clean - but he's not THAT ridiculous. Sky are more than happy to let the breakaways go, so he only has to beat the guys in the break, and he has a history of being a good climber.

Does he have a history of being a good climber before last year? As we know, he seemingly came out of nowhere then from being a non factor in the GC in all his previous GTs to suddenly finishing 4th after holding the yellow jersey for much of the race.

Looking at his palmares, he won the mountains classification at Paris-Nice in 2007. I don't know how significant that was. He may have just been in a couple breaks. I can't find anything else, so I honestly don't know the answer. Any insight?
 
Jul 7, 2012
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It should be remembered that Voeckler did show talent from an early age, holding the Yellow jersey for ten days the first time he rode the Tour and finishing in 18th place. This makes his performances a little more believable than if he was one of those riders who got his backside kicked for years, 'finishing an hour down most days', before suddenly becoming dominant.
 
Jul 7, 2012
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patrick767 said:
Does he have a history of being a good climber before last year?
Yellow jersey for 10 days through the Pyrenees in 2004 - his first ride in the Tour de France. Held the Tour's mountain jersey in 2005 and 2008. Won the Mountain's jersey in the 2007 Paris-Nice...
 
Robert21 said:
Yellow jersey for 10 days through the Pyrenees in 2004 - his first ride in the Tour de France. Held the Tour's mountain jersey in 2005 and 2008. Won the Mountain's jersey in the 2007 Paris-Nice...

Yellow jersey for 10 days after gaining 12 minutes in a break.

His first ride in the Tour was in 2003. His first GT experience was in 2001.

And mountain jerseys are often a sign of a rider being able to outsprint his breakaway companions for the prime.
 
Voeckler was 23rd in the GC of the 2010 Giro. He's always shown he's a capable climber when he wants to. Last year was ridiculous, but the only guy in the break I'd say might outclimb him in a given day is Sørensen (what with Martin blowing himself up and Vino being past it).
 
will10 said:
I thought we already had a Europcar thread?

We do?
Must have missed it amongst all the Sky threads.

Climbs off not once, but twice. Can't finish a race.
Two weeks later, nobody can live with him in the mountains.
Spends half of each climb looking over his shoulder for company.

Andy's gear didn't go to waste, then.:rolleyes:
 
hrotha said:
Voeckler was 23rd in the GC of the 2010 Giro. He's always shown he's a capable climber when he wants to. Last year was ridiculous, but the only guy in the break I'd say might outclimb him in a given day is Sørensen (what with Martin blowing himself up and Vino being past it).

Yeah, i remember at the time being surprised to see him doing well on some of the stages towards the end. He lost a lot of time early on but then finished 22nd on the stage to Aprica followed by 12th on the stage to Passo di Tonale

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/giro-ditalia-2010/stage-20/results

Considering he is the leader on a French team and would be aiming to peak at the tour those arent bad results, especially the last one. Have wondered before if his performance on stage 20 gave him the idea that maybe he could do well overall. Was still surprised at how well he did in the tour 2011 though..
 
I thought the reason for this thread was the whole knee saga and not Voeckler's climbing ability in general.

The guy abandoned Dauphine, Route du Sud, didn't ride the National Championships, there was talk during the first week of how bad his knee still is, and now he seems to have hit form. Not 2011 form, but still pretty impressive.

I certainly did not expect him to win 2 stages, almost win a 3rd and likely end up as the KoM after all the disrupted preparations.
 
Jul 10, 2010
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I agree. If there is anyone I want to believe is clean, it is Voeckler. Hands down the most exciting rider in the peleton. Racing the way it should be...old school to the max.
 
roundabout said:
I thought the reason for this thread was the whole knee saga and not Voeckler's climbing ability in general.

The guy abandoned Dauphine, Route du Sud, didn't ride the National Championships, there was talk during the first week of how bad his knee still is, and now he seems to have hit form. Not 2011 form, but still pretty impressive.

I certainly did not expect him to win 2 stages, almost win a 3rd and likely end up as the KoM after all the disrupted preparations.
Well, I'm not sure I bought all those knee injuries, to be honest. To me it looked like a way to justify their predictable drop in performance after those scares they had with Turgot, Charteau and the investigation.

Regardless, if they were doping in 2011, I doubt they jumped to a full, 5-star program straight away, so he and the other Europcar riders might just have scaled it down to their 2010 levels.
 
Robert21 said:
Yellow jersey for 10 days through the Pyrenees in 2004 - his first ride in the Tour de France. Held the Tour's mountain jersey in 2005 and 2008. Won the Mountain's jersey in the 2007 Paris-Nice...

IIRC those 10 days were because he was in a break away that gained an enormous amount of time and it took that long for the GC contenders to gain it back.

In 2005 he only held the mountain jersey on stage 2. That's not saying much. In 2008 it was stages 1-5. Again, that's before the Alps and Pyrenees, so it's not saying much.

Hrotha, 23rd in the Giro is a far cry from 4th in the TdF. Anyway, I'm not claiming that Voeckler is doping for sure. I don't know. I do find his apparently sudden excellence in climbing in the 2011 TdF odd, so I'm looking for earlier signs he could do it.

If he's clean, chapeau to him, he's making the TdF exciting.
 

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