'They won't stop me as long as I'm here' – the hero of the Tour de France is a rider nobody saw coming
Grand Tour debutant Baptiste Veistroffer has stolen French hearts with his solo breakaways
“How many microphones are there here?” asks Baptiste Veistroffer, sipping from a can of Fanta. “One, two, three, four,” he begins to count, but his Lotto Intermarché team bus is waiting and the tally is taking longer than he thought. “Let’s say around 15.”
As recently as a week ago, the Frenchman had never known such intense media attention. He was, with the utmost respect, a bit of a nobody – a modest second-year pro, riding his debut Grand Tour. The UCI rankings placed him as the 1,266th best rider in the world. Journalists had had no reason to speak to him. But now, with a swarm of microphones closing in on him in the post-stage mixed zone, he seems surprisingly at ease. These huddles are part of his new daily routine.
On stage 12, for the third time at this year’s Tour de France, Veistroffer pulled off his party trick; he went solo in the breakaway, won the combativity prize, and rolled across the line in the bunch, this time finishing a nondescript 161st.
“I didn’t even mean to end up alone,” he laughed to the TV cameras mid-stage. But such is the lure of adventure, the pull of panache, he couldn’t resist going up the road once more.
“It’s my game to give it a go,” he told the reporters. “I gave it my all again today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough, but I hope it’ll pay off one day.”
Behind the media zone fence in Chalon-sur-Saône, a group of children bellowed the Lotto rider’s name – “Baptiste! Baptiste!” – hoping to draw his attention.
Veistroffer's team bus has been mobbed by fans ever since his 144km solo foray on stage five into Pau. It’s unlikely many of those chanting his name had heard of him prior to this year’s Tour; Google searches for ‘Baptiste Veistroffer’ were basically nonexistent before July, save for a tiny blip when he won a stage of the Tour of Oman in February, his only pro victory to date.
Over the last week, though, the searches have ballooned more than 5,000%. What does he make of his newfound popularity? “It’s crazy,” he said, “but that’s the magic of the Tour.”
For the uninitiated, then, a short recap of Baptiste Veistroffer's life: born in Brittany, the 26-year-old grew up competing in triathlon, and only committed to cycling in 2020 during the Covid pandemic. He has a degree in climate engineering, used to work building ships for the French navy, and joined Decathlon CMA CGM’s development team in 2023. Two years later, he moved to Lotto, where he has now become a cult figure.
His nickname is the ‘Wild Boar of Fouesnant’, due to his strong build and attacking style. In fact, no other rider has dared to go in more breakaways than Veistroffer this season; he’s the only one to surpass 2,000km up the road. The next closest rider has tallied 500km fewer.
“It’s an enormous opportunity and an enormous pride to do that in front of the French fans,” he said after stage five. “I wanted to enjoy myself, and that’s what I did right from the start, at kilometre zero. I thought about it, and then I just went for it.”
Ahead of Thursday’s twelfth stage, EF Education-EasyPost’s Alex Baudin passed Veistroffer a hand-written note. “See you in the breakaway Wild Boar,” it read. “Try not to push me too hard.”
In the end, Baudin never managed to bridge across. The four that did only spent an hour or so in the Frenchman's company, then dropped back to the peloton and left him to his own devices again.
“It was a bit of a shame, but whatever,” Veistroffer shrugged afterwards. “We’ve all got different strategies, different sports directors. [At Lotto] we’ve got sports directors who’ve got more of an attacking vision and try [to win]. But voilà, I’m on the podium and they’re not,” he added with a cheeky smile.
It’s that attitude that has helped Veistroffer become the unlikely hero of this year’s Tour, the plucky antidote to a GC contest already bulldozed by Tadej Pogačar.
The Frenchman’s efforts haven't gone unnoticed, either. Ahead of Monday’s rest day, he was presented with the race's ‘Best Teammate’ award, thanks to his role in shepherding the unwell Arnaud De Lie through the opening stages.
Lotto feel lucky to have him. “He’s a really fun guy to work with. He's always motivated,” said the team's sports director, Mario Aerts, in a Velon documentary about Veistroffer’s first week heroics. “I worked with Thomas De Gendt for years, so I know everything is possible,” Aerts added.
So what is possible for Veistroffer on his Tour debut? Since De Lie’s abandon on stage three, the road has been open for him to attack, and he has wasted no opportunity.
Some wonder if he's plotting a bid for the race's overall combativity award. “I don’t know much about how it’s voted on. I’d prefer to get a stage win,” he smiled. “Stage 17 from Chambéry to Voiron could be interesting.
“My legs still feel good. At worst, if I pay the price for it later, I’ll have discovered a new limit for my body.”
Whether that stage win comes or his muscles pack in, Veistroffer’s race has already been a success. France has a new cycling sweetheart. The peloton has a new breakaway pest.
“They won’t stop me as long as I’m here,” he vowed on Thursday. Expect to see the Wild Boar on the run again.
