Thomas VOECKLER

[Ozz]

Who is this guy and do we care if he is 9:35 ahead of Lance?

And what is this frenchman doing with a german name???

Nice breakaway today...I like Magnus Backstedt! Sheesh, what a truck. What kind of wheels was he running on Tuesday? I figure something with 36 spokes at least! He must be a mechanics worst nightmare!!!

(let's talk about the race rather than the coverage) ;)

[alembical]

The live web coverage of the stage made some comment about the fact that he is 218 pounds. Talk about a good lead out man.

Alembical

[alembical]

My previous post should have tied his weight in with the fact that come the Mountains (if he keeps it till then) he will lose that yellow jersey.

Alembical

Edited to add that it also should have tied in the fact that I am talking about the Magnum Magnus not Voelker, who I know very little about (not implying that I know alot about Magnus).

[Ozz]

Magnus "the big swede" Backstedt is 212 or 218 lbs depending on source...I figure the team must have special equipment just for him. You wouldn't want to put him on some stupid-light wheels for riding over pave!

Voelker has the yellow jersey, but I don't know much about him other that he is French and is 25 years old...is he a climber, sprinter, can he time-trial?

[alembical]

oops sorry about that and I knew I was talking about Magnus as well. Not real clear thinking or typing today.

Isn't Voelker also the French champion? All I know is that Lance and Johan both have made it clear that they are not too worried. I read a commentary where Voelker was interviewed about having the jersey and how long he thought that he would have it. He chuckled and said something to the effect that he would just like to have it until the mountains, with the implication being that he knew he could not keep it once there.

Alembical

[EdK]

Backstedt road stock Neutrons, most likely with 25 tire for Paris Robaix.

[soulspinner]

I remember he had to change to overbuilt alu frames because he would crack carbon ones every week or so. Cant remember where I read that,Procycling perhaps.. The guy can turn a couple watts.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . somewhere or other the last two days to the effect that when asked about keeping the yellow jersey away from Lance, he replied, “I don’t think he has to worry too much about me.”

If he were of the caliber to stay ahead of Lance and the other usual suspects in the mountains, then we would have already heard of him by now.

BBDave

[Dekonick]

yes - but perhaps a rising star?

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . but I stand by my point. I mean I have NEVER heard of this guy. Has anyone else? Cunego was called a revelation by some as he took the Giro by storm, but he had already been pegged as a probable high finisher by several sources before the race even started.

I guess we will know for certain soon enough, eh? ;)

BBDave

[Dr. Doofus]

I have heard of the guy (and so has the doc), but then again, there's this stupid subscription to Velo that arrives here each month that gives I and us the chance to keep the french comprehension decent while reading about who the next big foul-smelling snail eating hope is....

Actually, I like Voelker and Flickinger a lot...both are better suited to winning races than Caesar or Chavanel (the latter two are mini-Jalaberts, but the problem is they are at this time "mini" -- they do a lot of things well but don't quite have the punch at *one* thing to win big races...and don't piss me or the mouse off about Chavanel winning the Quatre Jours de Dunquerque...when the big boys show up to that, it'll mean something)...Voelker and Flickinger have the explosiveness to win one-day races that don't involve the Coup de France, but whether or not they'll get the right development is up to question...classics riders have really gotten the shaft in froggyland ever since Duclos retired and Jalabert went to Spain...but when the National Race is, you know *the* Tour, there isn't much focus on single-day races...any trufflesucker worth his lactate tolerance and fast-twitch fibers tries to get on in Belgium, but then that doesn't really work for them either (look at every poor French slob who's gone to Lotto, where they laugh at him because there's no one in his family, not even a girl, named Gert)


Doc (also known as Robert) who has decided that his favorite pro is Koos Moerenhout, just because we're the same height+weight, ride the same size bike, and have equally bad haircuts...he's faster but the Doc says I'm better looking


Oh, and by the way...after three weeks of crash-induced trainer festivities Dr. Robert will be feeling fine for about three *more* weeks of two-a-day indoor sessions...don't play fetch with the Golden in the backyard barefoot with a cold...you may sneeze while the dog is sprinting (with the 50ft nylon rope), step foward as you sneeze, step on the rather quickly moving rope, and take off a good 2.5mm deep of skin from a ring halfway round your big toe...the things I and he do for the CycleOps company....

[Andreu]

Magnus Backstedt is married to Megan Hughes, the former British women's road-race champion and 1998 Commonwealth Games competitor and lives in Wales (one of my old haunting grounds) and could ride for Wales too - frightening prospect for the British Isles based riders - who could potentially get some monumental kickings in the future!
He is a big chap (90+kgs) and had some trouble with bikes (i.e. breaking, bending them etc)...I have heard on the grapevine that he has them specially built because he likes rigid backends (fnar fnar no double entendre intended).
Perhaps the good Srs. Jerk and Doofus have some inside info where this guy gets his scaffold pipes welded together.
A
Still managing to avoid Tdf coverage (in Spain!).

[rapid_ti]

It sounds like you don't get much information over the pond about the smaller races here in Europe otherwise you have heard of Thomas Voeckler before.
His name sounds german because he comes from Alsace. This region has a history of being moved between Germany and France therefore many towns and peoples have german names. Moreover the Alsatian dialect is very similar to the one spoken in the Black Forest, the adjacent german region.

[Too Tall]

Magnus Backstedt is my new hero...like RobertDoc I can RE-late to his similar size. Queen says I sit on a bike "prettier" than Magnus but she is biased ;) Man, I don't mean to perseverate BUT dang it's so cool to see a dominant TDF rider who weighs more than me and is almost as tall....it's makin' me crazy. Magnus has so much power it ain't funny. You have to watch carefully to see his accelerations. The guys doesn't get out of the saddle, he just throws down and motors. At the end of yesterday's stage I could SO relate to what was happening. The fast twitch boys were drooling all over the road and Magnus is humming the theme from JawsIII...the guys knows he won't win the sprint but he KNOWs it is his role to blast through them and make something happen and cause pain. How many awesome riders have been ground down to peanut size by this guys relentless endurance? Oh, he can handle a bike too. Ahhhh, it's a good day in XXL land.

So what does he ride?

[coylifut]

Got to hand it to Voelker. He attacked and attacked while knowingly setting up O'Grady. He had to, all of France was watching. It was a great way to honor the home countries national jersey. The last 10k of that stage, Magy was spent. Look at his body language, his elbows were completely locked. His early and futile attack completely tipped it off. If it wasn't for all of the jostling for position near the 1k mark, Magy and Cesar wouldn't have got back on. Lance and Co have to be quite pleased that Voelker is in yellow. A Frenchman on a French team will pay with blood to defend it. Looks like a free ride for the next 4-5 stages. Wow, how about that wind yesterday. When you can clearly see the trees bending over on the tube, you know it's just howling. No wonder there were so many crashes. Quite hard to hold the bike straight against some of those gusts. Good tour so far, 5 individual stages, 5 different winners. I expected the Petacci show.

[Todd Owen]

BBDave.......I found it VERY refreshing to see the UNKNOWN rider who is struggling to get a ride next year based on his performance at the Tour and is tickled to death to have the Yellow Jersey for only one day and that Lance doesn't have yellow jersey and 25 to 30 minutes on the field. It would be like watching Tiger Woods when he dominated the other Tour and it was frankly boring. I enjoy ANY coverage of the tour that is not 100% LANCE and what he ate for dinner and what Sheryl Crow had for dinner. Seeing the young UNKNOWN frenchman smiling and savoring his 15 minutes of fame was refreshing after the 50th rerun of how they set up Lances time trial bike. Don't get me wrong, I am 100% behind Lance to win the tour but your comments smack of the joke the olympic coverage has become in the US where we only see the few american athletes who win ONLY. I prefer to appreciate the sport for the spectacle and appreciate all riders efforts .I miss the coverage of some rider who barely made the tour and is riding his first or last tour. I wish they would cover the oldest man in the tour EKI and his story. Maybe I missed that during one of the recaps on the Lance cronicles. Lest you beast on my comments too much I did buy my Postal jersey last night and rode it and I seem to be able to time trial better than before maybe its the jersey dammit!

[Andreu]

Didn´t watch the stage yesterday due to my "protest". But I remember racing in Belgium and Holland for the first time in the wind and didn´t have a clue what was happening when they started to form echelons on the road (not the done thing in the UK...it´s just not cricket). I was either being elbowed into the gutter or riding in the wind. Those big Dutch and Belgium %$·&$·& stitched me up good and proper .....
A

[Climb01742]

i read somewhere that the kid can climb. hope he doesn't turn out to be like kivilev (sp?) a few years ago...got into a break...got what, 35 minutes on lance?...took lance forever to whittle the lead down...but young guys tend to wear down...especially with the weight of france on your shoulders...but the two time trials should give lance what he needs...hope, hope...

[Dr. Doofus]

Voeckler is hardly an unknown who is struggling to get a contract...Brioches may be out of the sport with the Pro Tour, but TV is French National Champion...hardly a "nobody"...as for capabilities, he's a climber only in the sense that he might get in the top 10 of the Amstel Gold one day...his only results so far have been wins in the Tour de L'Avenir and the Tour of Luxumbourg...he's been a "name" in France since beingthe top ranked espoir in 2000 (at 20)...now 25, he's a solid one-day prospect, but since one-day riders don't get developed in France, this Maillot Jaune will probably be his career highlight, along with the National champ jersey...but he'll be lucky to finish in the top 75 of teh Tour

[Ozz]

Sheesh he looked young! Seemed really excited to be in yellow...didn't seem too hopeful he would keep it for very long. He had fairly good english.

[Todd Owen]

My comments were from his interview where he said his team and he were still trying to get a sponsor next year. I think his team today would be the Wonder Bread Co if in the US????