Thomas Voeckler wins the Brabantse Pijl 2012
Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar secured his first victory of the 2012 season after his brilliant performance to mark the first victory of the season during the Brabantse Pijl 2012.
He finished the race in the fastest time of 4 hours, 49 minutes and 7 seconds and claimed the top spot with Oscar Freire Gomez and Pieter Serry at the second and the third positions.
Thomas was delighted after the victory as he told Sporza, "I'm really happy to have won my first race of the season. I love this race and finished fifth some years ago [sixth in 2010-Ed.]".
"On the wet roads it was hard to ride in the peloton and since there were no more strong teams to control the race I tried something".
“I figured some would come back but that didn't happen. I wanted to get a gap of a minute as soon as possible to take away the believe in the chase group”.
“It's not a specific goal because there’s a lot of a strong man at the start," he concluded.
Voeckler started riding professionally with Team Europcar in 2001and is continuing his ninth consecutive season with the team.
The cyclist rode brilliantly during the past season and claimed an overall victory at the Tour du Haut Var and the Four Days of Dunkirk.
The French also claimed stages at the Four Days of Dunkirk, Tour Mediterraneen, Paris-Nice, and the Giro del Trentino.
Thomas helped the team with fourth overall position at the Tour de France and held the yellow jersey for ten consecutive stages, 10-19.
Team Europcar was founded back in 2000 as a UCI Professional Continental team and also rides as the UCI Europe Tour when invited through the wild card entries.
The team rode under different names in the past years, Brioches La Boulangere, Bonjour, Bouygues Telecom and Bbox Bouygues Telecom.
Team has done a splendid job in the 2012 season and has already secured five victories in the young season.
Pierre Rolland helped the team with the stage 3 victory at the Etoile de Besseges and an overall victory at the Tour de Normandie by Jerome Cousin.
Sebastien Turgot claimed the second overall spot during the Paris Roubaix and helped the team with important UCI points in the 2012 season.
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