London remains a great memory for Bryan Coquard, who made a name for himself by winning a silver medal in the omnium in the Olympic Park velodrome less than two years ago. Since then, the diminutive and talented French sprinter showed how fast he could go without ever losing his enthusiasm for his sport inside French team Europcar.

The 22-year-old rider from Vendee is going one step further with this Tour debut on an island that brought him luck so far. He even had the honour of sporting the first green jersey of this edition after stage 1.

« It's true that London remains my best memory on a bike so far. But I hope to create new ones on the Tour, » he said.

Yet Coquard makes it clear that he came « to learn » on the greatest cycling show on earth, « his dream as a child ».  

While he did not deliver as expected in the French championship a week ago, he insists his form is good and that he eyes the English stages with ambitions : « They are stages that could suited me, except the second one, which was probably too hard for me. »