French coach Thomas Voeckler puts pressure on the Belgians ahead of the World Championships: 'At a different stage in his career'

With Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel, the Belgian team is heading to the World Cycling Championships in Montreal with just one goal: to bring home the rainbow jersey. Of course, there are plenty of contenders, with France among the strongest teams at the start. How does national team coach Thomas Voeckler view the Belgian team leaders?

France will field strong riders such as Valentin Paret-Peintre, Pavel Sivakov, and Alex Baudin, but of course, all eyes are on Paul Seixas. The 19-year-old rider from Decathlon CMA CGM is having a breakout year and has already shown his strength in the Canadian one-day races. There, however, he was beaten by Remco Evenepoel and Isaac Del Toro.

But Voeckler is drawing a great deal of courage from the GP Québec and GP Montréal. “Del Toro was very strong, and many riders are tailoring their race to Evenepoel,” he tells Sporza. “We French have a rider who had the courage not to wait for Evenepoel and to ride his own race.” At the GP Montréal, Seixas lost the sprint to Del Toro.

The Mexican proved to be incredibly strong, but the French national team coach doesn’t see him as the top favourite. That honour goes entirely to the two leaders of the Belgian team. “It’s like I said before: everyone is talking about Belgium at the World Championships. Of course they’re the favourites and Remco Evenepoel is the favourite, but it would be a mistake to race only against Belgium.”

Van Aert’s strength is precisely why the Belgians are so feared. But isn’t the course too tough for him? “Wout van Aert should be able to handle the toughest climbs on the course. But that will depend on how the race unfolds. The answer doesn’t depend on the climbs themselves, but on how they race on them and how tough the race is leading up to those climbs. I know Wout pretty well. He now has two weeks to recover and will be even better than he was in the Vuelta.”

With top domestiques like Tiesj Benoot, Thibau Nys, and Maxim Van Gils, the Belgian team has definitely sent its strongest squad to Canada. That’s why Voeckler is putting the pressure on them. “This is the team best equipped to win the world title, and the team that—in the absence of Tadej and with Remco and Wout—should normally win.”

Seixas will definitely be one of the top contenders, but given his lack of experience, the French national team coach doesn’t want to get ahead of himself. “It’s only natural that Belgium is considered the favorite. Paul Seixas isn’t the same age and is at a different stage in his career. We shouldn’t compare him to Remco, who is already a two-time Olympic champion and has won so much more.”