Among the revelations of this Tour de France is Kevin Vauquelin, the twenty-four-year-old from the Arkea - B&B Hotels team, who has been in third place in the general classification for a few days, behind Pogacar and Evenepoel.

Born in Normandy, in Bayeux, during Thursday's stage the entire crowd was there for him, and when he went on stage, he enjoyed taking a selfie, capturing all the people calling him Kevin the Viking and Kevin the King of Normandy.

At the finish of the sixth stage, in his Normandy, Vauquelin was euphoric, almost stunned by the celebration he never thought he would see.

«Was it a fun day? I don't even know if you can call it fun, it was madness. I saw a hot air balloon with my face on it! Can you believe it? Even the guys in the group were going crazy for me, it was insane».

The celebration was huge because Vauquelin the Viking is the pride of the French, who are still dreaming of winning the Tour de France. They know it won't happen this year because of Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel, but they hope that one day Vauquelin will achieve the yellow dream.

In yesterday's stage finishing at Mûr-de-Bretagne, the Norman Viking finished seventh, behind Jorgenson and Gall, but he thinks that without Evenepoel's interference, his race could have ended better.

«Remco Evenepoel didn't want me to be there. I think he was scared because he pushed really hard. I don't think it was about the stage, but about not accumulating some time gaps in the general classification - he said after arriving at Mûr-de-Bretagne - I made an enormous effort. I arrived with the first group and I think that's satisfactory. Actually, if Jhonathan Narváez hadn't arrived in front, maybe there would have been a chance to do something else and finish further ahead, but it didn't work out».

Vauquelin is very satisfied with his journey and his team is happy about the third place. «We've only reached the seventh stage and we still have 14 stages to go. This Tour is crazy. I saw billboards with my face on them today, and that just makes you want to push even harder».

The Arkea - B&B Hotels rider thinks he still has room for improvement and hopes to discover it in the coming days. This season he has already been noticed, but it's in the Grande Boucle that he has distinguished himself by always being in the group of the best, almost touching some victories.

«I need to work even harder. I still have the potential to gain quite a few points, so I need to make sure this start of the Tour de France is really useful for the future. My reputation in the group allows me to position myself a bit further forward and this allows me to be in line with the best. Last year I wouldn't have been able to be in this position, simply because I didn't know how to position myself. However, in a group, it's clearly seen that positioning is the most important thing. So now I just need to work and play a leading role every time».