In the Col du Corbier, David Veilleux felt he had the upper hand over his three breakaway companions. Without revealing too much, he took relays that were a little longer and more sustained. When he pulled over, the pace slowed slightly.
First lesson: he was the strongest of the leading quartet he composed with the Spaniard Ricardo Garcia and the French Thomas Damuseau and Jean-Marc Bideau. They fled into a pass after the third kilometer of this first stage of the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné, with start and finish in Champéry, Switzerland.
All representatives of second category teams, the four riders did not represent a threat to the announced leaders of this final preparatory event before the 100th Tour de France, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador in the lead.
Like some of his Europcar teammates, Veilleux had the mission of slipping into a breakaway of this short initial stage of 121 km, where the leading formations would probably not have interest in bothering with the yellow jersey of game entry.
“I had good feelings, but at this level of racing, I didn’t have too many expectations of our chances,” recalled Veilleux, 10 years to the day since that glorious moment in his (too much? ) short career as a professional cyclist.
“I didn’t think too much about that. I was just trying to do my time in the breakaway, without giving too much either. »
From two minutes at the start, the lead of the fugitives gradually swelled to six, eight, then ten minutes. Second lesson: No one in the pack seemed to want to take the lead in the chase.
“For me, that was the trigger. At that point, I was like, “Wait a minute, that’s not the ‘television’ breakaway I thought I was doing.” If I’m smart, maybe we can make it to the end. This is where my mindset really changed. »
The only Canadian in the race remembered the road book he had studied the day before. Three small passes stood in the last 50 kilometers of the stage. In the headset, he heard that the German Tony Martin, one of the two or three best riders at the time, had broken away from the peloton, which now clocked in at five minutes.
His three partners were beginning to represent a ball and chain. “Even though you get along great with them, you don’t want to start pulling guys and taking three or four times longer runs just for the sake of giving them a ride and blocking the wind.” »
In his eyes, the scenario was clear: “If I stayed with the other three, of course we wouldn’t surrender. I took a chance and left. »
At 47.5 km from the finish, thanks to a frank acceleration to which only Damuseau timidly responded, Veilleux took off solo.
Instinct or command of the sporting director Sébastien Joly, as the French commentator on the bike calculated live?
“It was I who made that calculation,” Veilleux said. If I had asked him, he sure would have said no! It was risky. There was still another pass and the climb to the finish. He didn’t underestimate my potential, but the chances of a plan like that working are very slim. By staying with the group, it gives you a chance to stay up front a bit longer. It’s the kind of move you try more 10, 15 kilometers from the line. »
His first goal was to get to the top to pick up the points for the mountain leaderboard. After the descent, Joly came up to his protege to tell him, “Be careful, keep your pace, don’t get angry. »
In the valley, the native of Cap-Rouge was convinced that at least Tony Martin, the reigning double world champion in the time trial, would join him.
“Finally, I was able to hold on. I had enough in advance. Sébastien realized that I would surrender. The more it went, the louder he shouted in the car…”
In the final climb, Veilleux nevertheless only held a priority of about three minutes over the peloton which had joined Martin.
“You have to be careful in these situations. Sometimes you give too much, too soon, or it’s too late. But it was easy for me to modulate my effort, a bit like in a time trial. I still had confidence that I could keep up the pace until the finish. I focused on that. Anyway, I didn’t control what the peloton did. »
Veilleux suffered particularly in the last hectometres towards Chambéry. “It wasn’t a very steep climb, but you were still in grip and there were some really tough bits. I was trying not to think about the gap. »
It wasn’t until 400 meters away, on a bend leading him into the heart of the village, that he could begin to celebrate, crossing the line screaming, fists clenched and biceps tense, gaze skyward. The peloton, regulated by the Belgian Gianni Meersman, returned 1 min 56 s later.
On the podium, Veilleux slipped into the famous yellow jersey sponsored by Crédit Lyonnais (LCL), a leader’s tunic that he defended for two days with his Europcar teammates, all happy to assume this responsibility in front of the big teams like Sky or BMC.
“It was just candy. I was smiling all day long on the bike. When you know that level… It’s not the Tour de France jersey, but with one detail: on the side of the heart, the logo is that of the Dauphiné and not that of the Tour. It’s almost a childhood dream. »
The one who was nicknamed Caribou remembers having received congratulations from Contador and Richie Porte, Froome’s main lieutenant who finished second in this Dauphiné, just behind his leader.
Veilleux’s only regret is not having managed to deliver a better performance during the individual time trial of the fourth stage (76th at 3 min 53 s), won by Tony Martin and at the end of which the Australian Rohan Dennis delighted the yellow.
“It is sure and certain that I had accumulated fatigue, but I also gave less importance to this discipline since my arrival in Europe. »
A few days after his victory, Veilleux received a call from the general manager of Europcar, Jean-René Bernaudeau, confirming his place for the Tour de France.
“I think I would have done the same [without his success at Dauphiné]. I was confident that year. It was fine, I had done my homework. The training camps had gone well. I was doing my job at the races, I had a good attitude. But it is sure that I lacked a click to be sure and certain. »
After a victory at the Boucles de la Mayenne, a small four-day stage race, David Veilleux became the first native of Quebec to take the start of the Tour de France, in Corsica. On the second stage towards Ajaccio, he took part in a breakaway.
Two months after arriving on the Champs-Élysées, one of his two most memorable moments on a bike with his victory at the Dauphiné, Veilleux announced his retirement at the age of 25, to everyone’s surprise.
Regrets ? “I never had any regrets. I had won some great races before too. After these three years, I became a real pro for the Europeans and the French in my team. I was made solid. Before, I was a little more at school. With my progress and what I had proven that year, I could, from a sporting point of view, envisage a career of seven, eight or ten years like Antoine [Duchesne] or Hugo [Houle]. But personally, it was not the career choice I wanted. »
For the past six years, Veilleux has been a mechanical engineer at Eddyfi Technologies, a Quebec multinational specializing in “advanced non-destructive testing”. Basically, if you want to check the integrity of a bridge, you call them.
His yellow jerseys are stored in a box, but each of his three children, Jeanne, 7, Édouard, 5, and Béatrice, 2, has one of the famous stuffed lions given to the leader every day…
