The Tour de France is full of stories. Every day we highlight a historical moment that can be linked to the upcoming stage. Today stage 9: the breakaway rider who just couldn’t prevent Mark Cavendish from taking his first stage win in the Tour.
Nicolas Vogondy will undoubtedly have often thought back to July 9, 2008. The peloton then travels 232 kilometers from Cholet to Châteauroux, right through Central France. Shortly after the start, French champion Vogondy goes on an adventure with his compatriots Lilian Jégou and Florent Brard.
“Every day we go on the attack,” says Vogondy. The then thirty-year-old rider from the modest Agritubel team is competing in his fifth Tour and is chasing his first stage victory. His best result in a stage is a seventh place in 2002. In that Tour he also achieves his best result in the classification with nineteenth place.
Vogondy, Jégou and Brard are given space by the peloton on a sunny day. The French trio rides ahead for almost the entire day in the longest stage of this Tour, but appear to be caught in the final. Vogondy therefore attacks one kilometer from the finish and leaves his two fellow escapees behind.
In his fifth Tour, Vogondy finally seems to be about to take his first stage victory. With 500 meters to go, he has a significant lead over the approaching peloton. At 100 meters he still has a gap. But at 50 meters the brave escapee is caught, after which Cavendish sprints to his first stage victory in the Tour. The Briton is now a record holder with 35 victories.
It is not the first time that things have just gone wrong for Vogondy. A year earlier in Compiègne, after a flight of 230 kilometers, he was passed by Fabian Cancellara 500 meters from the finish. “500 meters, 50 meters. Maybe it will work next year,” says the disappointed Vogondy. The Frenchman would ultimately never win a Tour stage.
