Coach of French rising star warns rivals: "He’s getting close to the world’s best punchers"

The big breakthrough for the now 24-year-old talent came during last year’s Tour, when Vauquelin won stage 2 on the legendary San Luca climb. This year, he already put in strong performances, including a second-place finish in the overall standings at the Tour of Switzerland, as well as taking home the jersey for best young rider.

Vauquelin carried that form into the opening week of the Tour: 8th place on stage 2, 5th in the time trial on stage 5, and 7th on stage 7. “He’s doing exactly what we spent the winter building toward,” says Rinaldi. “Kévin has enormous strength in his legs and the ability to hit his peak values and hold them for one to ten minutes, and to keep pushing even when everything hurts. That’s a quality not everyone has at these long distances.”

“In the WorldTour, we train riders to focus on their strengths so they can win in their respective disciplines,” the trainer continued. “With Kévin, we’ve used that approach to help him become one of the world’s best punchers. He’s starting to get there.”

What really stood out was the time trial on stage 5, where Vauquelin gave up just 49 seconds to stage winner Remco Evenepoel, but beat Jonas Vingegaard by more than half a minute. “This is the highest level we’ve ever seen from him in this discipline. In Caen, he had to stay powerful and maintain his position, without moving, despite pain in his glutes, back and lower body. This suits his qualities, inherited from the track: pushing hard through pain without breaking that aerodynamic position.”

For example, according to Rinaldi, Vauquelin rode his time trial bike “almost every day” over the winter. “Bianchi gave us a new bike, and we switched clothing suppliers. We went through wind tunnel testing, tried different skinsuits, and tested various helmets to choose the best one. Then we worked hard on finding a position for Kévin that was aerodynamic but still allowed him to produce high wattage. All of that took time and money, and Arkéa-B&B Hotels made the investment. The results are now confirming that work.”

On Monday, the peloton faces a tough stage with a summit finish on Mont-Dore. According to coach Rinaldi, this is a climb that should suit his rider well. “It’s a 10-minute effort where he can stay with a group of strong riders, like we saw at the Tour of Switzerland.” The trainer added that Vauquelin’s preparation was mainly focused on the first week. “So this is new for Kévin. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it.”

Speaking to Cyclism’Actu, Vauquelin looked ahead to the stage on the 14th of July, the French national holiday. “It’s a very, very hard stage due to the profile, and I think the peloton will be determined to start off strong.” The Frenchman admitted he’d had a few difficult days. “We tried to cut back on the photo obligations, because I was really exhausted. I truly needed rest, so those two days gave me a bit of recovery, and that was really nice. It’s important in a three-week race. This is cycling, you never know what can happen.”

Looking at the bigger picture, Rinaldi has no illusions when it comes to competing with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. “They will be battling for the GC. That won’t be Kévin’s fight. We’re sticking with the goal of winning a stage. Kévin is a true winner. He needs to raise his arms at the finish line. We’re not treating the GC as a short-term goal. If he takes it easier at times, that’s part of the game and part of the learning curve.”

The reason the GC isn’t a goal, Rinaldi explains, is due to a lack of references in high mountain stages. That’s something they’ve worked on during a training camp in Isola 2000. “The first one-hour climb he ever rode was in 2024 during the Tour of Switzerland. We worked on climbing, learning about the mountain passes, and repeating efforts. We worked on that in Isola. Not in general, but focused on the efforts that suit him.”