Thomas Voeckler won the Tour du Haut Var two-day stage race in the south of France this weekend. Cofidis’ Samuel Dumoulin won the stage on Saturday and held a one second lead over Voeckler. But during the second stage to Draguignan the French champion slipped away on a descent and worked hard with Julien Antomarchi of the modest VC La Pomme-Marseille squad (NB a cycling club with its own pro team) to stay away.
As they approached the finish the pair shook hands (pictured), presumably agreeing that Antomarchi could have the stage since Voeckler was going to win the overall. Deals happen sometimes and this time it was a fair trade since both riders stood to gain. It wasn’t an undeserved win either, Antomarchi was strong and Voeckler’s tongue was hanging out and sometimes small gaps opened up when the neo-pro pulled through.
You can see the last 15 minutes of racing over on Youtube.
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Could anyone translate what they were saying (shouting) at each other?
Great race! Two days of entertainement, thanks to the France 3 feed!
Chapeau to that kid! Following Voeckler isn’t easy…
I’d watched the clip on You Tube already. Cracking stuff. I wouldn’t call Antommarchi’s win a gift though as you’d called it on Twitter. An agreement obviously but it was symbiotic.
Anyway, the La Pomme kit resembles FDJ’s from the front so that’s another pair for your list of potential confusion.
Inner Ring delivers articles that other, older cycling websites, fail to consider.
The Balance is shifting…
Nice. Always pleased to see Tommy V win. But seeing him take second is even better, to share the win with a new guy.
Like the way you take a snapshot of the race and make it into the story.
That almost looks like honour and respect between them….such a rarity! Always nice to see thomas win