He arrived on time, in his black tracksuit, at the race department of the Arkea B & B Hotels team in Bruz (Ille-et-Vilaine). All smiles, Kévin Vauquelin greeted the six subscribers to West France came to question him, then took part in a photo shoot with them.
The winner of 2e stage of the Tour de France 2024, 2e de la Flèche Walonne then spoke with them for an hour in a meeting room of his team.
All smiles, the 23-year-old runner answered everything, used humor and won over his audience. Selected pieces.
When you enter the circle of stage winners in the Tour de France, do you feel different?
We will say that notoriety is changing a little. It's certain that when you look at Instagram in the evening, and you gain 30,000 subscribers at once, it's weird (laugh). We are getting a little deeper into our career. It's a realization, a dream for everyone, first of all to participate in the Tour and, what's more, to win a stage quite quickly (the 2e between Cesenatico and Bologna, June 30). We enter a closed circle, where even great champions have not won on the Tour, such as Richard Carapaz, who nevertheless has enormous results. So yes, it changes a little bit, but we also have to keep our feet on the ground.
“The Tour, a steamroller of the spin…”
What is your physical return on this first Tour?
It's a steamroller, spinning, we're in a washing machine (laugh). We don't realize when we're in front of the TV, we tell ourselves that it's four hours in the day. But we wake up, we eat, we go on the bus, we travel all the time with a lot of transfers… Physically and mentally, it's hard. There are complicated times for all runners.
After a stage of the Tour, what is the next race of your dreams?
As I have always said, I am really attached to the championships to show off a jersey. Whether it's the French, European or world championship, these are three races where I really want to perform to have a border on my jersey.
Will competing for the general classification on Grand Tours be an ambition in the future?
Of course it's an ambition. Let's say that I don't…
