The puncher won his first Tour victory on Sunday in San Sebastián, the first on the Grande Boucle for Cofidis in 15 years.
A sprint, to the finish. Cédric Vasseur imitated his runner to join him on the line, as if he had suddenly relieved himself of an enormous weight. To everyone’s surprise, deceiving the vigilance of all the favorites in the last kilometer, Victor Lafay won the 2nd stage of the Tour de France, Sunday July 2, in San Sebastian, already offering the first French victory on this edition. . Little known to the general public, the 27-year-old Lyonnais has made a name for himself with great fanfare.
Already the only one to follow Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in the Pike hill on Saturday, Victor Lafay had predicted the scenario of the day just before the stage. “It can happen in a small group in the sprint because the last climb is not as hard. I can also slip into a big group. It will depend on whether UAE wants to leave the jersey, which I don’t think. And there has teams like Jumbo-Visma who are going to want to win with Wout van Aert”.
The analysis was perfect. Everything Victor Lafay had predicted happened, except that in the end, he was the one who played a trick on them, tumbling at full speed in the last kilometer to blow them the victory. “I don’t really realize. I saw my counter scrolling… It’s a crazy thing, it’s huge. I hung on. For once, I said to myself ‘I’m going to have a plan in the final’. I knew it would attack at the end, I said to myself ‘I’m doing the kilometer’. I saw that it was slowing down a bit, and I went there”, traced the winner of the day to the finish.
Uneven performance and late maturity
Discreet, the 27-year-old puncher is a runner of (good) shots. In 2021, he offered himself, already to everyone’s surprise, a stage victory in the Tour of Italy. Here he is now a winner on the Tour, he who has only four victories among professionals. “He’s atypical, he’s not the runner that everyone can see hyperconcentrated 365 days a year. He needs his periods of relaxation, he prepares differently from the others. He does a lot of ‘one shots’, but when he’s there, he knows how to win races. With Victor, you never know, he’s not the right guy to bet on, it can be bingo or it can be a fiasco!”, unveils its sports director Thierry Marichal, followed by its manager Cédric Vasseur. “He’s a great person. He is relaxed, he dreams. I compare him to an artist.”
Frustrated by the day on Saturday, regretting not having gone to the end of his attack, Victor Lafay used it to taunt the leaders on Sunday. “He is one of the most talented riders of his generation. He had a lot of problems at the start of his career. He took a long time to mature”explains his sports director. “If he had given himself the means, he might have already gone for a victory like that in the Tour de France. Victor needs a little more time than some other riders”confirms his manager.
Despite his undeniable talent, Victor Lafay surprised even his own teammates on Sunday, like Guillaume Martin and Anthony Perez. “He’s impossible to describe, you never know what to expect, that’s the proof today. We know he’s capable of the biggest numbers. He showed on Saturday that he was in the strongest on this start of the Tour. He’s a quiet person, it doesn’t go to his head. I think he was sure of his strength.” dropped Guillaume Martin, who learned the news on his way back to his bus, from the mouths of journalists.
Anthony Perez was caught in the trap of his joke: “Two kilometers away, the guys tell me ‘Do you know who won?’, I tell them it’s Victor. They tell me ‘No?!’, I tell them that I’m joking. And at the finish I see that if… I say to myself ‘Oh the con!'”laughed the Toulousain.
“Victor, one day he can be great and not the next day. He takes the days as they come. During the day, he told me he wasn’t incredible, it didn’t look too bad anyway!”
Bryan Coquardat the finish of the 2nd stage
It is finally the veteran Simon Geschke, whose profile is similar to his, who sums it up best: “Victor is very easy going. He’s not always perfect in races. Sometimes he has difficult days, but on a great day he can win almost any race, he’s incredibly strong and has made himself name today!”congratulated the 37-year-old German.
For Cofidis, the end of an endless food shortage
In addition to his victory, Victor Lafay did a great service to his team, which had been chasing a stage of the Tour since… 2008 and Sylvain Chavanel, that is 298 days of racing without the slightest bouquet! An eternity for a French team present every year. “It felt like fate was against us, that there was a curse. It’s a deliverance, it’s been so long. This morning at breakfast, I said to him: ‘Victor with legs like that you have to win a stage!’ But I didn’t think it would be so soon. Cofidis has returned to the big leagues, and it’s not over”welcomes Cédric Vasseur.
The refrain had become heavy among the Northerners, who attended, powerless, to the moments of glory of the other French formations.“I haven’t been in the team for 15 years but we hear about it. It was the objective of this Tour. It’s done from the second day”, blows Bryan Coquard, also “cursed” on the Tour where he never won despite 22 Tops 10. With always the right word, Guillaume Martin hopes that this victory will quickly call for others. “It was a long scarcity. Each year, there was this count and a year was added. We hope not to wait 15 more years to raise our arms!”