# Paul Sherwin Hate Tommy Voekler



## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

did anyone else hear paul railing on voekler? paraphrasing here, but:
"i think the only reason thomas voekler is at the front here is to get his face on french TV. he wont last too long."
"im not surprised the group is letting voekler off the front. they are using him to swat away the flies. i m certain they will come up and swat him him to the back shortly."

then later they showed voekler off the back. "well, just as i predicted, here is voekler off the back."


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## tom_o (May 6, 2004)

Dunno if he was railing, or just stating a fact.


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## innergel (Jun 14, 2002)

weltyed said:


> did anyone else hear paul railing on voekler? paraphrasing here, but:
> "i think the only reason thomas voekler is at the front here is to get his face on french TV. he wont last too long."
> "im not surprised the group is letting voekler off the front. they are using him to swat away the flies. i m certain they will come up and swat him him to the back shortly."
> 
> then later they showed voekler off the back. "well, just as i predicted, here is voekler off the back."


Those lines cracked me up. I think Voekler is viewed as a self-promoting worker bee, at best, regardless of his yellow jersey. Sherwin was just stating the obvious.


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## pedalruns (Dec 18, 2002)

weltyed said:


> did anyone else hear paul railing on voekler? paraphrasing here, but:
> "i think the only reason thomas voekler is at the front here is to get his face on french TV. he wont last too long."
> "im not surprised the group is letting voekler off the front. they are using him to swat away the flies. i m certain they will come up and swat him him to the back shortly."
> 
> then later they showed voekler off the back. "well, just as i predicted, here is voekler off the back."



I thought it was pretty funny.... made me laugh!


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

Thomas Voeckler hit the lottery a few years ago when he got the yellow jersey, then he worked very hard to keep it. While that might make him somewhat of a popular hero, no one in the peloton believes he'll ever reach that high again. Sherwin is only saying what everyone else thinks, and it turns out that he was 100% right (except perhaps for the French TV part--who knows?).


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

weltyed said:


> did anyone else hear paul railing on voekler? paraphrasing here, but:
> "i think the only reason thomas voekler is at the front here is to get his face on french TV. he wont last too long."
> "im not surprised the group is letting voekler off the front. they are using him to swat away the flies. i m certain they will come up and swat him him to the back shortly."
> 
> then later they showed voekler off the back. "well, just as i predicted, here is voekler off the back."


Who? Not worth a thread. Just a fly swatter.

fc


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

*If I recall correctly....*



francois said:


> Who? Not worth a thread. Just a fly swatter.
> 
> fc


....Tommy V is right up there with Tommy B in the affections of the ladies. I don't see what the attraction is but nothing wrong with a little eye candy out there.


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## JGUTZ (Dec 13, 2005)

The other VS commentators (Bob Roll and Al Trautwig(spelling?)) take a shot at French riders anytime they have a chance. I seem to remember them saying "bonehead French move geared towards TV time"


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

bob roll hates everything french, at least thats how he comes off. i think it goes back to the way 7/11 was treated when they started in europe.

MB1: i dont know if the ladies like tommy d. they seem to be stuck on boonen. as far as american riders, i believe dave z is the ladies fave.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

*We are talking Tommy V not D.*



weltyed said:


> bob roll hates everything french, at least thats how he comes off. i think it goes back to the way 7/11 was treated when they started in europe.
> 
> MB1: i dont know if the ladies like tommy d. they seem to be stuck on boonen. as far as american riders, i believe dave z is the ladies fave.


I doubt Bob Roll actually hates the French, like most things he talks about it is just something colorful to say to keep himself employed (and we enjoy him a lot).


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## Fredke (Dec 10, 2004)

Just remember that Paul was also very dismissive of Soler when he went off the front. Something like "What does he think he's doing?" And all the time they were telling us that Vino was just faking being hurt and that we'd see him pull a Lance when the gradient picked up.


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

MB1 said:


> I doubt Bob Roll actually hates the French, like most things he talks about it is just something colorful to say to keep himself employed (and we enjoy him a lot).


i feel like a fool, now. i started the thread. for some reason i saw tommy B and thought it was a D. i know my wife likes tommy B and david Z, but thinks tommy V is a glamour dog.

i also doubt he BR HATES the french, but thats the way he comes off. he has gotten more joke-y about it the past 3 years or so. but in his books he lights them up. and vs knows it does sell to some of teh american public. 

(btw, i feel honored to address and be addressed by the patron of rbr. thanks, MB1).


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## Einstruzende (Jun 1, 2004)

This morning during the pre show, either Paul of Phil said "Will a French rider finally get a stage win?" to which Bob Roll replied "I hope not." before laughing and saying he was kidding.

I thought it was funny and actually like his commentary.


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## dagger (Jul 22, 2004)

*Sherwin is right*



weltyed said:


> did anyone else hear paul railing on voekler? paraphrasing here, but:
> "i think the only reason thomas voekler is at the front here is to get his face on french TV. he wont last too long."
> "im not surprised the group is letting voekler off the front. they are using him to swat away the flies. i m certain they will come up and swat him him to the back shortly."
> 
> then later they showed voekler off the back. "well, just as i predicted, here is voekler off the back."


Voeckler has reduced himself to showboating for the camera. That's all he can do.


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## teoteoteo (Sep 8, 2002)

dagger said:


> Voeckler has reduced himself to showboating for the camera. That's all he can do.


They have to cling to something. You should be in France when a French rider wins. Virenque was the worst. No lie, ANY time Virenque was in a break the radio and TV guys would go nucking futz. He could be 100k out and they would be talking about how nobody in the break with him was stronger than him, etc. Voekler was similar, just a bit smaller in scale. I remember his first day in yellow L'Equipe ran words "Bleu, Blanc, et Jaune" in a font so large the last time it was seen was when WWII ended. Of course, USPS loved having not having to control the race while Voekler and his spastic climbing style got face time on TV.


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## atpjunkie (Mar 23, 2002)

*early i n the stage*

and Bobke is talking about "there's always some inexperience kooks who go on knucklehead breaks with absolutely nothing to gain"

asecond later Voekler and team mate make a move

Bobke "and here's one of them"


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## Fredke (Dec 10, 2004)

Am I the only person around here who liked Jacky Durand?


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## Fredke (Dec 10, 2004)

innergel said:


> Those lines cracked me up. I think Voekler is viewed as a self-promoting worker bee, at best, regardless of his yellow jersey. Sherwin was just stating the obvious.


 A different perspective:Most often, a breakaway can look like an exercise in futility — a few cyclists riding alone for hours, only to be caught by the pack within a mile or two of the finish. Even when the group makes it alone to the end of the stage, the charge to the finish inevitably brings disappointment for all but one of the riders — disappointment that would appear to outweigh the effort.

Not for the sponsors, however.

“It’s just a great advertising board,” said Bradley Wiggins, a British rider who went on a solo breakaway of 118 miles in the sixth stage. Wiggins’s effort was particularly appreciated at the offices of his team’s sponsor, Cofidis, a French company that provides consumer loans.

“I had nearly four hours television coverage the other day on my own, which is for free in many respects,” Wiggins said. “If Cofidis were to buy that advertising space, it would cost them a lot of money.”

Fabrice Lepeu, the corporate liaison to the team sponsored by *Bouygues Telecom*, a French mobile phone company, said that a sponsor prefers for a rider on its team to win the stage. 

“But especially when a team is looking for a sponsor for next year,” Lepeu said, “it is important for them after the Tour to be able to go to potential sponsors and say, ‘Look, you would have been seen for two or three hours on television on the Tour.’ ”

The level of television exposure is significant, indeed, particularly for companies doing business in France. The French television broadcast of the Tour has regularly been reaching *more than 4.5 million viewers in France, accounting for nearly half the television audience*, according to figures released by the broadcasters.​


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## ti-triodes (Aug 14, 2006)

Voekler's an attention junkie who seems to pick up speed and grimace every time he sees a camera bike go by. He's been doing this ever since he was the media darling in 2004. My wife and I always have a good laugh whenever we see him.


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## California L33 (Jan 20, 2006)

MB1 said:


> I doubt Bob Roll actually hates the French, like most things he talks about it is just something colorful to say to keep himself employed (and we enjoy him a lot).


Last year, or maybe the year before, didn't he say that he always calls it the "Tour Day France" because it drives the French crazy and he's getting back at them for the way they treated him back in the 7/11 days? I remember from my visit to France (not on the pro peloton) that many of the French absolutely hated even the slightest mispronunciation of a French word.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

*Give him credit, everyso often he won.*



Fredke said:


> Am I the only person around here who liked Jacky Durand?


Yes, I liked his style.


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## Coolhand (Jul 28, 2002)

Fredke said:


> Am I the only person around here who liked Jacky Durand?


Everyone liked Jacky Durand- he was the man. Hard as nails. He was trying to win each time. And several times-- he did! King of the Headbangers (awesome nickname even!). 

Voekler is not even worthy to carry his bidons.


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## teoteoteo (Sep 8, 2002)

Coolhand said:


> Everyone liked Jacky Durand- he was the man. Hard as nails. He was trying to win each time. And several times-- he did! King of the Headbangers (awesome nickname even!).
> 
> Voekler is not even worthy to carry his bidons.


I never really liked Durand and then I met him at TdG. In my broken French we made some conversation and laughed over the circus surrounding a certain rider attending. I ended up talking to him a few times over the week and I always would ask "how many attacks today Jacky", to which he usually answer none my legs are tired. Of course, he'd try 6 times every day

The final day I was commenting on seeing him speed past a team car while he was descending (the day before). The car was going down one of the gaps at like 55 on a long straight stretch. He took me over to his bike to show off his max speed...something like 67mph.


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## Bocephus Jones II (Oct 7, 2004)

Voklererer ist a moreon. He dont even no hoe to NNC. I bet he eats beets and kicks corgis. HTH!

<img src=https://media.kansascity.com/smedia/2011/07/15/03/09/13-1pmryN.St.55.jpg>


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## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

Voeckler has a huge suitcase of courage, tucked inside his giant steel balls, next to his giant seaman's trunk.


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## krott5333 (Oct 2, 2009)

oh snap


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## Brick Tamland (Mar 31, 2006)

waat?


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

this is a 2007 thread. very misleading.

lock.


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