INTERVIEW
This is the final time for the runners of the Great Loop. Sunday, after 128 kilometers of plain, the sprinters will compete for victory on the Champs-Elysees during the 21st stage of a Tour de France, which will be, except exceptional incident, won by the young Colombian Egan Bernal. For the Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, consultant of Europe 1, this Tour de France 2019 "will remain in the annals".
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"We had a magnificent Tour de France," enthuses the former 4th of the Tour de France 2011, with failures, exploits, the adventure of Julian Alaphilippe, Thibaut Pinot who was in the game to win the Tour before to give up in a huge dramaturgy. "With 14 days in yellow and a fifth place in the overall standings after his complicated climb to Val Thorens, Julian Alaphilippe has definitely established himself as the darling of the public, while Thibaut Pinot, winner at the Tourmalet, impressed in the Pyrenees before moving the fans by being forced to retire at the 19th stage.
"Egan Bernal deserves his victory"
"Even if we would have liked a French winner, Egan Bernal is a handsome winner who deserves his victory," said Thomas Voeckler. "It was presented as a phenomenon even before this Tour de France, it still had to be translated on the field, because the Tour de France is not like the other races, "he adds. For the Europe 1 consultant, the 22-year-old Colombian, who is poised to become the youngest winner of the post-war tour, has found a route this year for him. "So much of the summit above 2.000 meters of altitude (...) it favored it", explains Thomas Voeckler, and and "it allowed its hatching in a way may be earlier" than expected.
The former holder of the yellow jersey during the 2004 and 2011 Tours, however, recalls that the fate of the climber was also upset by the package of Christopher Froome, four-time winner of the Tour de France, and "would have been the leader of the team Ineos ". "It worked in his direction, but we must recognize that it is a magnificent winner," he concludes.