Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) has thus far been spared the kind of intense public countdown endured by Tom Boonen over the spring, but the Frenchman is quietly burning the days as he nears the end of his career. When the Tour de France reaches the Champs-Élysées on July 23, Voeckler will hang up his wheels, though he will not step away from professional cycling altogether.
Public relations, television work and team management each hold their own allure for the 37-year-old, and he is reluctant to decide on the direction of his cycling afterlife until the summer. "The only thing I can say for sure is that I'll stay in cycling. What my role will be, I don't know and I haven't decided yet, though I have been talking about it," Voeckler said in York on Thursday on the eve of his final appearance on British roads at the Tour de Yorkshire.
"One thing is sure: the guy who wins on the last day in Sheffield won't be far from the overall victory. But in a three-day race like the Tour de Yorkshire, if you focus too much on one stage you can lose everything on the other ones."
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Voeckler won the race a year ago by overpowering Nicolas Roche on the final leg to Scarborough, and as a consequence, this weekend marks the last time in his career that he lines up wearing dossard number one. He has been passing his jersey onto various team sponsors after each race this season, but he admitted that he was minded to hang onto this one as a memento.
While Boonen's spring was taken up by the all-encompassing crusade to win a fifth Paris-Roubaix, there is a more valedictory feel to Voeckler's final weeks in the peloton. After seventeen years as a professional, two French titles and twenty days in the maillot jaune on the Tour, Voeckler has little left to achieve. His emphasis is on enjoying the moment rather than seizing it.
"I already have a lot of victories in my career. I'd be happy to have another win, a nice one, but it won't be a big regret if I don't," Voeckler said. "It's my last season as a professional. I'm enjoying it. I'm just trying to draw pleasure from it. I have no goals in terms of results. I don't say to myself, ‘I have to win this race' or ‘I have to win a stage on the Tour de France.' I don't think like this. I just take pleasure in riding for my team, spending most of the time as a road captain and a teammate. Then, when the legs are good, I can try to make breakaways."
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