Fifth in the Tour de France before the 16th stage, Kevin Vauquelin suffered a thousand ills in the rise of Mont-Ventoux, paying a heavy speed on arrival.
Kevin Vauquelin has undoubtedly seen his dreams of Top 5 fly away on Tuesday in the rise of Ventoux. While he was still in fifth place in the attack on the last week of the Tour de France, the Norman dropped in the ascent of the “Mont Chauve”, losing almost two minutes on Primoz Roglic and Florian Lipowitz and more than a minute on Oscar Onley.
In the general classification, if he still has sixth place, he now accuses almost two minutes late on Primoz Roglic and saw Felix Gall or Ben Healy get closer. The day was difficult for the leader of the Arkea-B & B Hotels team, who discovered Mont Ventoux.
“I was good at the beginning and as usual I had a soft stroke at some point. When they started to attack, I think it was Jonas (Vingegaard) who launches, I tried to find my rhythm but I had a blow to the mind. It was hard, very hard ”, he said on arrival in remarks reported by The team.
Kevin Vauquelin came close to the big correction
Once again, Kevin Vauquelin was able to count on the support of his teammates to whom he did not fail as usual to pay tribute. “There was Ewen (Costiou) who has dismissed, who joined me and who made me the tempo. I really had trouble restarting, then there was Raul (Garcia Pierna) who arrived. Ewen did a big job, then Raul took the lead and we went up to end up to finishhe said. They were really extraordinary and also, during the stage, Arnaud (Démare) and Amaury (Capiot) to place me at the foot. »»
And the native of Bayeux will keep a painful memory of his discovery of the Ventoux. “I tried to limit the breakage, I had never made such a long climb. I had never done Ventoux and yeah, it hurts. It was horrible, horrible, horrible, he insisted. Fortunately I had Raul and Ewen with me, otherwise it would have been a bigger correction. We really fought until the end. »»
