Listen, when I wrote, “Surely that longed for Tour de France victory for Cofidis can’t be far away” in yesterday’s post, I didn’t expect it to happen TODAY! As if that wasn’t joyous enough, the rider to put his arms in the air was none other than the bullish Victor Lafay. Oui mon amis, Le jour de gloire est MOST DEFINITELY arrivé. Stand by for Midge’s moment.
ouiiiiii Victor Lafay !!! 🔥🔥🔥#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/5eqoTd9V43
— Team Cofidis (@TeamCOFIDIS) July 2, 2023
The Mighty ‘Dis have not won a stage at the Tour de France since Sylvain Chavanel (still a wonderful name to say), pipped Francaise des Jeux’s Jeremy Roy on stage 19 in 2008. But today, those 15 years of hurt were laid to rest when Victor took a well timed flyer in the last kilometre and held off a rampant UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma.
Relive the last nail-biting kilometre in French. ALLEZ!
⏪Relive the final km of Stage 2 of the #TDF2023, where @victorlafay won by attacking under the flamme rouge
⏪Revivez le dernier km de la 2ème étape du #TDF2023, où @victorlafay a gagné en attaquant sous la flamme rouge! pic.twitter.com/xLryP6X00E
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 2, 2023
Oh that attack was well executed. The swing to the opposite side before his jump. A moments hesitation by a group that should have been more alert. The metres counting down. My screams as the Jumbo Bees chased the win for Wout and Tadej looked all out to grab his bonus seconds. It seems Victor had the same fear…
🗣️ "In the last metres, I looked down at my computer, I saw 500 metres, 400 metres, I said to myself I will inevitably be caught at 50 metres. It's sick" – 🇫🇷 @victorlafay #TDF2023 @letour_euskadi pic.twitter.com/ZCLdOTnxxA
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 2, 2023
But the man from Cofidis kept his cool, soaring over the line, arms aloft. Pure sparkling magic.
That is quite brilliant by Victor Lafay. A perfectly timed attack to gazzump the sprint and take the win 🚴♂️👍 #TdF2023
— Tim | ThatchamDad (@thatchamdad) July 2, 2023
Who doesn’t love a rider described as dazzling and unpredictable?
JOY
La joie de toute une équipe 🏆#TDF2023 📸 @MathildeLAzou pic.twitter.com/qnMIoH11r2
— Team Cofidis (@TeamCOFIDIS) July 2, 2023
So much JOY
🎥 [Vidéo] Tour de France : @TeamCOFIDIS fête la victoire de Victor Lafay à Saint-Sébastien 🚴 pic.twitter.com/eLoLpH2tkf
— SudOuest Sport (@SudOuest_Sport) July 2, 2023
Cofidis get to ride with the green jersey on their team tomorrow. Will we see FULL Green from helmet to pedals??
Love this photo with Romain Bardet (Team dsm firmenich)
🤜🤛 💙🤍❤️#TDF2023 📸 @GettySport pic.twitter.com/MY6rwB1j3q
— Team Cofidis (@TeamCOFIDIS) July 2, 2023
Cofidis can finally open that bottle of Champagne that has been sitting on the bus for 15 years
— Race Radio (@TheRaceRadio) July 2, 2023
Rumour has it that the team boss Cedric Vasseur has kept a bottle of champagne on the team bus for all these years – a votre santé guys, enjoy the bubbly.
Stage results
Top-10 on Stage 2 of the Tour de France pic.twitter.com/LdJlvRjn5M
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 2, 2023
🎽Jerseys after Stage 02 / Maillots distinctifs après l’étape 02
💛@AdamYates7
💚@VictorLafay
🔴@NPowless
👶@TamauPogi#TDF2023 @letour_euskadi pic.twitter.com/cFJ8kQUhlk— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 2, 2023