Thomas Voeckler knows he’ll never win the Tour de France, but he’d sure love to win a stage someday.

Voeckler rose to prominence with his brave run in the maillot jaune in the 2004 Tour de France. Since then, he’s been trying to confirm that scrappy performance with a stage victory. Despite some daring attacks and close calls, he’s come up empty in the hunt for the rare Tour stage win.

Voeckler, 28, enters the 2008 campaign as one of the top riders at Bouygues Telecom, the French team lacking GC contenders but packed with riders eager to make a mark on the race.

“I want to do well in the ProTour races this year, like a stage victory in the Tour, Paris-Nice or the Dauphiné,” Voeckler told Eurosport. “I’d love to win a Tour stage. I realize that 150 of the 200 starters have the same goal of winning a stage, but I hope in 2008, it will be my turn. It’s my eighth season as a pro and I know the race. Without bragging, I think I have the experience required to win a stage.”

Voeckler, who lived for a spell on the Caribbean island of Martinique while growing up, recently signed a contract extension that will keep him at Bouygues Telecom through 2010.

An outspoken proponent of clean racing, Voeckler sees encouraging changes in the peloton despite a string of disastrous doping scandals.

He has applauded the introduction of the “biological passport” and said it will bring the peloton closer in line to what France has been doing already for several years with tighter controls.

“It’s not my style to give in to discouragement, even though there have been some hard times in cycling with all these (doping) cases. I still think things are going better the past two years and there are fewer cheaters,” he said. “The sport is at a pivotal moment. The rest of us can go to the start line and race with ambitions of winning. There’s room again to do more than just get beat up.”