Thomas Voeckler wins the tenth stage of the Tour de France 2012
Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar bagged his first victory at the most prestigious cycling event of the season.
He completed the 194.5 kilometre pursuit to Valserine in the quickest time of 4 hours, 46 minutes and 26 seconds and restricted his major opponents.
Michele Scarponi of Team Lampre-ISD finished three seconds behind at the second position with Jens Voigt of Team RadioShack-Nissan, holding the third position with a total deficit of 7 seconds.
“I’m 33 years old and this is my 10th Tour de France, so I fully appreciate what is happening to me,” said Voeckler.
“I knew that the King of the Mountains jersey was possible, but I wanted to win the stage. No one would help me push on the climbs, they just sat on my wheel”.
“That annoyed me, but it also inspired me. Coming into the finish, I waited for my moment and then went. When I crossed that line, I felt such a rush. My knees hurt, everything hurts, but I couldn’t give up”.
Luis Leon Sanchez of Team Rabobank, Dries Devenyns of Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep and Sandy Casar of Team FDJ-Big Mat finished at the fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively.
Voeckler opened his 2012 winning account with a first place at the Brabantse Pijl and also bagged stages at the La Tropicale Amissa Bongo and the Tour de France.
He finished fourth at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, fifth overall at the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Amstel Gold Race, eighth at the Tour of Flanders and also held the mountains jersey during the stage 10 of the Tour de France 2012.
Michael Morkov of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff won the first mountain of the race while Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar succeeded during the second and the third climbs of the race.
Thibaut Pinot, Rein Taaramae, Tejay van Garderen, Rafael Valls Ferri and Steven Kruijswijk were the top five young riders on the day.
Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky is leading the stage 10 classifications with a total lead of 1 minute and 53 seconds on the Cadel Evans.
Christopher Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Denis Menchov are holding the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
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