Sylvain Chavanel and Thomas Voeckler to lead Team France at the World Championships 2011
Thomas Voeckler and Sylvain Chavanel will be leading the French Team in the World Championships 2011 as French coach Laurent Jalabert is hopeful that the team will perform at their best under his leadership. Both Chavanel and Voeckler are icons in the cycling
world and have brought a tremendous amount of success to their teams.
Voeckler had the finest year of his career as he won two stages at Paris-Nice followed by the overall victory at the French road race, Four days of Dunkirk and also at the Tour de Haut Var. The 32-year-old had an outstanding Tour de France 2011 as he won
the yellow jersey at stage 9 and held on to it for ten days.
Voeckler was a serious contender for the general classifications and had the huge support of the French crowd, as they were desperately waiting for a French winner for years. He was unable to win as he finished the Tour de France 2011 at the fourth position
falling 3 minutes and 20 seconds short of the race winner Cadel Evans. Thomas wore the yellow jersey from stage 10-19 at the Tour de France 2011 and he is very capable of winning medals for his country at the World Championships.
Thomas is the second highly paid French cyclist after Sylvain Chavanel, as they both make an ideal combination to lead any team at any event. Chavanel is also having a wonderful year as he won the National Road Race Championship followed by a second position
at Tour of Flanders. He finished fourth at the Three Days of De Panne and held the Red Jersey from stages 4-7 at the Vuelta a Espana 2011.
Laszlo Bodrogi and Dimitri Champion will be representing Belgium in time trials as the rest of the team includes Yoann Offredo, Tony Gallopin, Biel Kadri, Samuel Dumoulin, Anthony Ravard and Anthony Roux.
It will be interesting to see how the two top ranked French riders lead their team in the most awaited event of the cycling world starting in Copenhagen next week. Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Italy and Belgium have also announced their teams for
the grand event.
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