The Yellow Jersey by Peter Cossins

Author:Peter Cossins
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473563988
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2019-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

WINNING THE TOUR DE FRANCE AT THE FIRST ATTEMPT

Eleven cyclists won the general classification the first time they participated in the race.

‘I suspect that the motivation of the yellow jersey is so much higher than it is for a rider finishing in the main group. Voeckler’s brain overrode his normal limits and dipped into the protective reserve through the Pyrenees … A Frenchman wearing yellow in his home race is going to be a powerful driver. It’s impossible to know how deep that protective margin is without actually hurting someone but at this elite level it’s enough to turn someone good into someone great.’

Voeckler agrees that this motivating factor is particularly significant for racers from the Tour’s home nation. ‘I think it does lift French riders. It’s really quite something to become aware of what it can do for you. You’re bound to feel real pride when you wear this jersey, especially when you think a rider like Raymond Poulidor never wore it, even though he won dozens of races,’ he says. That day, France’s Fête Nationale, the force transmitted to Voeckler by the jersey was especially strong. Foreign riders do receive a similar lift, but it’s extremely rare to see a non-French rider raise their performance well beyond expected levels in the way that Antonin Rolland, Vincent Barteau, Pascal Lino, Georges Groussard and Cyrille Guimard, to name but a handful, were able to when they spent long spells in yellow. Voeckler stands out, though, because he managed it twice.

Two days on from his defence at Luz-Ardiden, he came through an even bigger test on a stage to Plateau de Beille that crossed the same passes on which he had fought his remarkable rearguard action in 2004. ‘I benefited that day from the headwind that was blowing and from knowing the climb,’ he says. Initially, the road switches back and forth steeply as it climbs out of the Ariège valley, but the closing kilometres take a more direct line towards the tiny cross-country ski station at the top. With teammate Pierre Rolland not as strong as he had been in the preceding stages, Voeckler found himself under greater pressure. But such was his confidence by this point that he responded to every significant attack. ‘It was the only time that I ever felt like the Tour’s patron,’ he says.

That word that instantly summons up the image of Hinault and is particularly noteworthy at this point because Voeckler’s approach to the race began to change. ‘I never thought that I would win the race,’ he states. ‘I always knew that Evans would take the title because of the time trial that came right at the end. I did start to think, though, that a podium finish was possible.’ As the race completed the ‘transition’ stages between the Pyrenees and the Alps, the media were trumpeting this scenario, talking up this ‘Tour à la Walko’ where the French underdog could upset the established hierarchy.

When the Tour reached Gap, where Evans sneaked away

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