AG2R La Mondiale’s Alexis Vuillermoz rose to stardom in his home country of France after a perfectly-timed acceleration on the Mûr-de-Bretagne landed him the stage 8 victory at the Tour de France.
Vuillermoz, 27, was the first Frenchman to win a stage in the 2015 Tour de France and he captured it with class, accelerating away from yellow jersey Chris Froome (Team Sky) and the rest of the favourites in the group at 800 metres from the finish line.
He had already shown promise in this year’s Grande Boucle when he captured third place in stage 3 on top of the Mur de Huy.
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“I can’t believe it, it’s not possible,” said Vuillermoz, who sank to the ground to recover after crossing the finish line. “I still can’t believe it. It was a violent effort. It took me some time to realize what I have done. Now that I’ve recovered, I realize that I did it. It’s difficult to realize that I won a stage in the Tour de France.”
The Frenchman accelerated a couple of times on the straight climb in Brittany. The first half of the Mûr-de-Bretagne climb was the steepest and suited him the most.
“I tried about two, three times. In the steep part Adam Yates was still on my wheel so it was smart to wait a bit. Then I recovered a bit on the wheel of Froome. The third effort was the good one. In the final metres I closed my eyes because I was so tired and worried. After the line I sank to the ground because I couldn’t believe that I won a stage in the Tour. It’s enormous.”
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