Alexis Vuillermoz

Alexis Vuillermoz
	Vuillermoz at the 2023 Tour de l'Ain
Personal information
Full name	Alexis Vuillermoz
Nickname	Pikachu
Born	1 June 1988 (age 36); Saint-Claude, Jura, France
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Weight	60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)
Team information
Current team	Team TotalEnergies
Disciplines	Road; Mountain biking;
Role	Rider
Rider type	Puncheur
Amateur teams
2006–2008	Scott–Les 2 Alpes
2009–2012	Lapierre International
2012	Saur–Sojasun (stagiaire)
Professional teams
2013	Sojasun
2014–2020	Ag2r–La Mondiale
2021–	Total Direct Énergie
Major wins
	Grand Tour Tour de France 1 individual stage (2015)

Alexis Vuillermoz (born 1 June 1988) is a French road bicycle racer, who rides for UCI ProTeam Team TotalEnergies.^[5]

Career

Mountain biking (2006–2012)

He was originally a mountain bike racer before switching to road cycling, winning the French national under-23 mountain bike title twice and riding as part of the French national team that took the team relay title at the 2008 Mountain Bike World Championships.^[2]

Sojasun (2013)

He was a member of the Sojasun team that competed at the 2013 Tour de France,^[6] finishing the race 46th overall.

Ag2r–La Mondiale (2014–2020)

Vuillermoz joined Ag2r–La Mondiale for the 2014 season, after his previous team – Sojasun – folded at the end of the 2013 season.^[3] In the eighth stage of the 2015 Tour de France, Vuillermoz attacked the leading group on the Mûr-de-Bretagne to cross the line solo atop the hill.^[7] "After winning I thought about my dad who died three years ago. He was the one who got me interested in the Tour de France, he used to take my cousins and I to the side of the road to watch the Tour go past," said Vuillermoz. "I hope today he's proud of me."^[7]

In 2016, Vuillermoz finished in 23rd position in the Olympics men's road race and in 29th position in the Olympic men's road time trial.

He started the 2018 Tour de France, but was forced to abandon with a scapular fracture sustained after colliding with a roadside spectator trying to take a photo in one of the cobbled sectors on stage 9 to Roubaix.^[8]

Total Direct Énergie (2021–present)

In October 2020, Vuillermoz signed an initial two-year contract with the Total Direct Énergie team, from the 2021 season.^[9] In his first season with the team, he finished fourth at the Tour du Finistère,^[10] and seventh overall at the Tour du Rwanda.^[11] During the Tour de Suisse, Vuillermoz crashed during the seventh stage individual time trial, fracturing his pelvis and doctors advised him not to race again.^[12]^[13]

At the start of the 2022 season, Vuillermoz recorded top-ten finishes in four of his first five race starts, with a best finish of fourth place at the GP Miguel Induráin. Later in the month, he finished third at the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs, and recorded a tenth-place finish in La Flèche Wallonne. That June, Vuillermoz won a stage from the breakaway at the Critérium du Dauphiné,^[13] winning a sprint finish of five riders in Brives-Charensac that managed to fend off the peloton by five seconds and assumed the race lead following the stage.^[14] Having extended his contract by a further two years in August,^[15] Vuillermoz did not return to the podium until October's Gran Piemonte, where he finished in third place.^[16]

Major results

Mountain biking

2005: 3rd Team relay, UCI World Championships; 3rd Cross-country, National Junior Championships
2006: 1st Cross-country, National Junior Championships; 2nd Cross-country, UEC European Junior Championships
2008: 1st Team relay, UCI World Championships; 1st Team relay, UEC European Championships
2009: 1st Cross-country, National Under-23 Championships; 2nd Cross-country, UCI Under-23 World Championships
2010: 1st Cross-country, National Under-23 Championships