Winner of the second stage of the Tour de France this Sunday in Bologna, after having experienced a difficult day the day before, Kévin Vauquelin is considered by those who know him as a future great. And one of the best representatives of French cycling which is definitely doing very well.
“At this rate, you will even manage to find a sprinter to win tomorrow.” The confidence is released with a smile, and a touch of jealousy, by a Spanish colleague at the finish of the second stage of the Tour de France, this Sunday, in the orange and bright streets of Bologna. It must be said that the blue-white-red clan could hardly do better on this inaugural weekend. The day after the fabulous number succeeded by Romain Bardet, crowned emperor of Rimini and first yellow jersey of this 111th edition, it was the turn of Kévin Vauquelin to transform this June 30 into an early July 14. A simple statistic to measure the scale of the performance: it is the first time since 1968 and Charly Grosskost’s double, with Jacques Anquetil’s Bic, that France has won the first two stages of the Tour. Another era.
Fifty-six years later, Vauquelin came to offer Arkéa-B&B Hotels its first victory in the Grande Boucle after having dropped his breakaway companions in the second ascent of the terrible and sumptuous San Luca hill, pushed by the encouragement of a crowd of tifosi unleashed as if they were supporting one of their own. Further proof of the ability of this race to make its competitors experience a slide of emotions. On Saturday, his face reddened and distorted by the blazing sun of the Adriatic coast clearly reflected the suffering experienced by the 23-year-old Norman during the first stage. “I knew straight away that things weren’t going well. The heat played a role and I preferred to get up,” he said this morning, far from being dejected but cautious, his eyes already turned towards the future. “It’s true that I know San Luca well for having raced the Giro dell’Emilia. I’ll try to see how I position myself.”
“He has plenty of cards to play”
You only have to look at the way he took off on the emblematic climb of the Emilian city, then resisted the return of the pack of favorites, to understand that the night was a salvation. The fifth success of his career, and the confirmation that he has reached a new level this season, after taking second place in La Flèche Wallonne, and narrowly failing to put on the tricolor jersey of French time trial champion (second, three seconds behind Bruno Armirail). “He has been following a magnificent evolution for three years. He is capable of extraordinary things. He is an excellent rider and when he isolated himself at the front, I knew he would not be caught”, confides our consultant Cyrille Guimard, convinced that the native of Bayeux, considered from the beginning as a great hope, has “the profile to play the general classifications on stage races, provided he works a little in the mountains”.
“It might be a bit tight over three weeks, but over one week he could be brilliant. I see him succeeding in races like the Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse, but also in the classics. He has plenty of cards to play. What I like is his consistency and his ability to reproduce intense efforts at several precise moments. What he lacks, even if today it wasn’t the case, is perhaps a bit of speed in the climbs,” continues Guimard. His teammate Arnaud Démare could string together superlatives all evening to describe the man he considers to be “an incredible puncher”. He also reveals a lesser-known side of his “little brother”. “He’s someone who doubts. At the moment, young people are asking themselves a lot of questions when they watch Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel… I’m discovering him this year and he surprises me. Before him, I had never seen someone of his size (1m76 for 69kg) send so many watts”, said the sprinter as he joined his team bus, where the emotion was obviously immense.
The fiber of a future boss
Special mention for sports director Didier Rous, who couldn’t hold back his tears in front of the journalists. “When you win, you’re moved, and I still am. Yesterday, Bardet won and took the jersey. Today, Kévin won. We’re not on the same team, but we’re still French. The main thing is that the French are having a great start to the Tour. It’s working out for us, so much the better for us. We knew that Kévin was riding very strong, but we’ve had some complicated months with lots of problems, guys who fell. So you have to savour things and that’s what we’re going to do!” confided the former rider, after falling into the arms of Emmanuel Hubert, manager at Arkéa-B&B Hotels and also overjoyed: “I never doubted!”
“He’s a guy who’s never satisfied with what he does. When he came second in the Flèche Wallonne, he told me that first place would have been much better. Above all, he’s a boy with a lot of values. I love his parents, having a little Norman Calvados with them when they come to the races. I hope we’ll go a long way together. Kevin wants to be one of the world’s great riders and his progress is enormous. His maturity is growing. He knows how to listen and set an example. Does he have the makings of a future boss? I think so, he knows how to assert himself. What’s certain is that when you win a stage of the Tour at 23, you have the right to believe in a lot of things. You can’t say that he’s the French rider who’s going to win the Tour, you have to take it little by little. The bird will build its nest,” insists Hubert.
As for French cycling, propelled into the spotlight, even if Tadej Pogacar couldn’t help but steal the yellow jersey from Romain Bardet’s shoulders this Sunday, he is now starting to dream of a hat-trick. With a promised arrival for the sprinters this Monday in Turin, the ball is in the court of Arnaud Démare, Axel Zingle and even Bryan Coquard.
Rodolphe Ryo, in Bologna (Italy)
