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Thomas Voeckler surprised everyone, including himself, by keeping the lead in the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:top of Luz-Ardiden on stage 12. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Twenty four hours earlier, he was convinced that he🔜 wouldn't be able to 𝓡do so.

"For me, it's a surprise but a nice surprise," Voeckler said after finishing the stage to hold 1:49 over the new runner♔ up, Fränk Schleck. "This st♏age will not be without consequences. I might pay for the efforts I've produced today. I'm really surprised to still be up there. When the favourites attack, I don't usually manage to follow them."

Voeckler's lead is in fact due to the lack of attacks in the group of the favourites where he and his teammate Pierre Rolland worked well to maintain a steady pace and discourage other riders to cha🎃nge the rhythm of his group, which was reduced to ten riders.

"The eight remaining riders from Europcar have been useful today," said Voeckler who still regrets not having hi🐻s good friend Christophe Kern at his side. The French champion for time trial finished sixth in the Dauphiné. Had he not been forced to quitꦜ the Tour after five days due to tendinitis, he would have been a great help in the mountains. "I must give a special mention to Pierre Rolland who has done a huge amount of work in the final climb," Voeckler said.

"Sometimes I tend to underestimate myself, but I🧸'm not exactly a beginner in the Grand Tours. In 2004, I was told that the yellow jersey gives wings and it's true. If it's to finish 20th in a stage, I can'🎉t reach the same level of suffering. But in the Giro d'Italia in 2009 and 2010, I wasn't far from the top ten of some mountain stages when we had to use gears like 39x27 for climbing."

Without any possibility of a good GC, Voeckler finꦜished 20th at Asolo at the bottom of the Monte Grappa, 22nd at 𝓡Aprica after the Mortirolo and 12th at the Passo Tonale following the ascent of the Gavia at the Giro d'Italia last year.

"I need the right circumstances to climb well," he explained. "Since the start of the stage, I felt that I had good legs. I knew that it would be a very difficult day. I was honest when I said that I expected to lose the yellow jersey, but I also said that I would give everything to keep it. Maybe I didn't expect my team to be so efficient. I'm even more proud of my team than I am of mysel๊f today."

Voeckler was on the edge of signing with Cofidis at the end of September, as team manager Jean-René Bernaudeau had failed to find a new sponsor to take over from Bouygues Telecom on time, but the UCI gave the permission to extend the deadline to deliver a sponsorship agreement by three days, and his key rider 🌟was faithful till the very last minute. The deal with Europcar took placeﷺ and the team was saved.