tour reporter
With an attack in the last kilometer, Victor Lafay ensures the first French stage win in the Tour de France. His team had to wait 15 years for such a success and even had their doubts about Lafay.
The winner of the day still looked a bit disheveled after his stage win in San Sebastian to explain the coup he had just landed. Victor Lafay had outwitted them all with his attack at the kilometer mark, the big favorites for the stage win. The Frenchman simply drove away and took his narrow lead to the finish.
“The last 500 meters were difficult, I only turned around once and saw that there was a small gap. But I wasn’t sure until I crossed the finish line”said Lafay beaming afterwards: “It was all or nothing.”
Cofidis had been waiting for a stage win since 2008
Nothing – in previous years that was usually what the French Team Cofidis brought home from the tour. Last year, Simon Geschke had to give up his dotted mountain jersey on the last difficult mountain stage, which still hurts him. A few days earlier was the Frenchman Benjamin Thomas in carcassone caught as a runaway just before the finish. Most stayed the Cofidis-drivers only the honor for the most combative driver – a kind of consolation prize.
Thierry Marichalthe sporting director of the team, was in San Sebastian asked if he knew when his team last won a stage at the Tour de France celebrated. “25 minutes ago”, he said laughing and he was right about that. But of course also knew Marchialthat his team has had a very long dry spell until lafay now brought salvation.
The sponsor has been loyal since the beginning
At the 2008 Tour, a Cofidis rider was the last to be honored as the day’s winner. At that time the Frenchman had Samuel Dumoulin the second stage in nantes won. The race 15 years ago was mainly characterized by doping scandals. The team Saunier-Duval – leaded by Mauro Gianettiwho today leads the UAE team around Tadej Pogacar – had to retire early after the Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli when epo dopers were busted. Later, the German professional cyclist Stefan Schumacher was also stripped of his two stage wins.
The team Cofidis has existed under this name since 1997 – at that time a certain one also belonged Lance Armstrong to the squad. This continuity in name is a rarity in cycling, where team names change with changing sponsors. But the French bank has it team remained loyal for years. No matter in which fairway she moved. Also a doping scandal of its own, known in the early 2000s as “Cofidisaffair” went down in the inglorious history of cycling changed nothing about this loyalty.
In France, people have been talking about cycling ever since “two speeds”, when it comes to the superiority of other drivers. Because in the course of Cofidisaffair, which started as a result of state investigations, the anti-doping rules in France were tightened again.
This time bingo instead of fiasco
Victor Lafay obviously has nothing to do with any of this. He was born a year before the formation of the team was twelve years old when Cofidis last at the Tour de France celebrated a stage win. But the fact that he of all people ended the long wait for success on the tour was another point of the day.
lafay had a lot of problems at the beginning of his career and therefore needed longer to mature, said his sport director Marchial. The achievements of the 27-year-old are consistent Lyons but not until today. “We made a big bet when we lined up Victor for the tour”said Marchial: “You never know with him, it can be bingo or fiasco.”
This time it was bingo. Just like in 2021 at the Giro d’Italia, where he was also able to win a stage. This success on the tour will certainly give his career another boost, he suspected lafay.
Everything will be easier now
The fact that he could be on the winning side of this year’s tour was already indicated on the first stage, when he and the two top favorites for overall victory, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, got over the final climb of the day but wasn’t sure whether to attack or not. Which later frustrated him greatly. But this time took lafay put his heart into his hand, knowing full well that he wouldn’t stand a chance in the sprint against drivers like Wout van Aert and Pogacar.
For the team Cofidis is Lafays Stage win, meanwhile, not only marks the end of the long wait, but also relief from the burden that French teams always feel when they compete in the most important cycling race in the world. “The tour is already a success”said Lafay’s teammate Simon Geschke: “Everything that comes now will be a little easier.”