Thomas Voeckler happy with his top-10 finish at the Worlds
Thomas Voeckler was a definite pre-race favourite for the UCI Road World Championships 2012 in Limburg, Holland but had to surrender ahead of Philippe Gilbert’s top form.
Voeckler had a terrific 2012 season and was pretty confident for the Dutch race but had no answer to the Belgian’s super attack in the final 2 kilometres of the race.
The Dutch was looking good till Gilbert fired in the final kilometres of the race dropping Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alejandro Valverde at the second and the third positions.
John Degenkolb, Lars Boom and Allan Davis claimed the fourth, fifth and the sixth positions in the respective order while Thomas Voeckler settled for the seventh spot.
However, Voeckler does not seem to have any regrets from the race as he credited Gilbert for his dazzling performance to claim the rainbow jersey.
"I didn't do the last climb full on so that I could try and save my effort for the false flat afterwards," Voeckler told reporters outside the French team bus.
"I had good legs, but I knew that my only small chance on this course was to jump away after the effort was made on the Cauberg with 1.5km to go, when the leaders would have no teammates left".
"Gilbert is the only person able to do that, and if he hadn't done that, there wouldn't have been a little group off the front chasing him either".
The 33-year-old opened his 2012 winning account with a first place finish at the Brabantse Pijl 2012.
He rode brilliantly during the Tour de France and claimed two stages and the mountains classifications at the French Grand Tour.
Thomas also finished first at the La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, fourth at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, eighth at the Tour of Flanders, fifth overall at the Four Day of Dunkirk 2012 and the Amstel Gold Race 2012.
He although finished at the seventh position but was the top French rider on the day and was hugely cheered by the crowd.
He fell 5 seconds short of Gilbert but his effort to finish amongst top-10 was appreciated by the team selectors and the cyclist himself.
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