Two in a row for Europcar at the Tour de France, as Pierre Rolland soloed to a magnificent solo victory at La Toussuire the day after his teammate Thomas Voeckler won at Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.
Rolland had endured a difficult opening week of the Tour as he lost time in a crash, but he was able to take advantage of his position on general classification to escape the peloton early on stage 11.
“When you’re not looking to defend a placing in the overall standings, it means that you can take more risks to win stages,” Rolland said of his long day of attacking, which began on the slopes of the mighty Col de la Madeleine, when he joined the day’s early break.
On the Col de la Croix de Fer, his teammate Christophe Kern set a relentless pace, and eventually only the strongest remained at the front – Rolland, Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Vasili Kiryienka (Movistar) and Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank).
A fall on the descent of the penultimate climb, the Col du Mollard, couldn’t halt Rolland, and the four leaders approached the final 18km ascent together. “I’d had too much bad luck on this Tour to give up,” Rolland said.
It was familiar situation for Rolland, who took victory on a similar stage to l’Alpe d’Huez last year, dropping no less a figure than Alberto Contador on the Tour’s most celebrated mountain. The Frenchman repeated the feat here, jumping clear of his companions on the early slopes of the final ascent, and holding off the chasing yellow jersey group to claim the second Tour stage win of his career.
“It was a similar stage to l’Alpe d’Huez, a short stage but with long climbs,” he said. “There were 60km of climbing in that stage last year, 70km this year. It was the most beautiful stage of the Tour.”
Rolland’s victory sees him move back up the overall standings to 9th place, and given his qualities of endurance, he can look forward to making a further impact later in the race. “Last year, when I worked for Thomas Voeckler and then won at l’Alpe d’Huez, I learned that I was capable of going well in the third week,” he said. Expect Rolland to shine again in the Pyrenees.