From The Archives: Moreau ’07
Jan 8 2010
I realize that 2007 was indeed a very open Tour, but I think Cyclingnews may have been enjoying a joke at our expense when they wrote up this preview:
In fairness, Moreau had indeed been putting down some of his best post-Festina riding in 2007, winning the Dauphine and even hanging with the leaders as they made some uncharacteristically soft attacks in the early TdF climbs.
But Moreau has a long history of needing excuses. When the GC race got tight, the Frenchmen found himself caught out by a field-splitting move from a Vino’-led Astana squad, and it was all downhill from there.
Moreau can probably glean some redemption form the fact that two convicted dopers contributed greatly to his implosion, but finally finishing in 37th, over 90 minutes down, it’s hard to cast the Frenchman as a hard-luck story of “what if…”
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Yeah, Moreau’s peak was around 2000-01, although that 2007 Dauphine was a great little coup. He’s someone who could have won a lot more if he had been less mentally and emotionally fragile.
People got excited after his attacks on the 2007 stage to La Grand Bornand. But Laurent Fignon (who remains a very astute observer of the sport) pointed out that it was basically a rookie’s error: you don’t attack on an even gradient into a headwind.
I would have really liked to see Moreau go after the classics more. He always seemed too big to be a real top-shelf Grand Tour contender.
Certainly, the most impressive win I ever saw of his was Stage 4 of Languedoc-Roussillon in 2004. VS/OLN was broadcasting Lance’s entire season that year, and the stage really unfolded—and finished—like a hilly one-day.
Well you should have been trying like me to read L’EQUIPE in the flamboyant ecstatic pose, it felt like reading some of HD’s original commentaries. The Moreau excitement was palpable everyday he was in the front end of the field it was a village fete of Moreauism, photos of the wife, kids, family home, and this is in a sports paper. He was even on the front page the L’Equipe for the Grand Depart in the national jersey, with the phase “God defend the Tour” as the headline (actually their were two front pages that day, one in French, one in English, but lets not quibble, further as a ‘bye’, guess who’s posterior was on the back page disappearing up the road in dossard 1, nice touch frog. Moreau silly facts he was on 6 cover pages until his fall, oops demise on the 20th of July and even then there was days of morning coverage, More oh! More ohh..….)
Cool — I don’t think I ever saw that stage. (Also, I gather the secret segue between this post and the next is Moreau’s one-second victory in the 2001 Dauphine Libere . . .)
I think of this whenever I hear his name:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/landis/instantmessage.html
He probably should have more than a 4th place certificate in his palmares.
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Moreau had indeed been putting down some of his best post-Festina riding in 2007
God defend the Tour