{"id":125170,"date":"2025-09-09T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/125170\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:59:09","slug":"lafay-reflects-after-strong-ride-against-van-aert-but-admits-hes-unsure-about-his-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/125170\/","title":{"rendered":"Lafay reflects after strong ride against van Aert, but admits he’s unsure about his future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Lafay<\/a> beat Wout van Aert, among others, in a thrilling finale in stage two of the 2023 Tour de France, but since then, things have not been going well for the Frenchman’s career. Injuries and illness kept him out of racing for a long time, making early retirement from cycling suddenly seem very real. The 29-year-old rider spoke candidly about his uncertain future.\u201cThere have been a lot of ups and downs,\u201d Lafay began his story in the Tour of Britain with Daniel Benson<\/a>. \u201cLast year, I had my injury in January after changing teams. It was my left knee. It was hard to start a new season with a new team and to be injured. It took us a lot of time to find out how to be better and to cycle again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until June last year that he was able to race again. \u201cIn June last year, I could start again. Then I could prepare well for the Vuelta, and Ben O\u2019Connor took the red jersey. That was a really good adventure. So the end of that season was okay, and I did a good race in China for my last race. I was happy to finish in good shape,\u201d said the Frenchman, who finished fourth in the Gree-Tour of Guangxi.<\/p>\n

The idea was to keep going in the new year, but misfortune struck again. \u201cI was hoping that 2025 would be a nice year, but I started to have an illness in January and February. I then focused on Milan-San Remo, and I was very good in that race, but there was a crash just ahead of me on the Cipressa.\u201d The same knee problem returned.<\/p>\n

On Liberation Day this year, he had surgery on that knee. \u201cThis time I could find a surgeon who could operate on me, and now it\u2019s okay, but it took one month of doing nothing after the surgery, another month of rehab, and then I could start to cycle again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"wout<\/p>\n

With a late attack, Lafay brilliantly won stage 2 in the 2023 Tour<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know yet for 2026,” Lafay said<\/p>\n

Via the Tour de l’Ain and the Tour du Limousin, Lafay went to the Tour of Britain, but there too, things didn’t go well. \u201cI prepared to race the Tour de l’Ain again in August about a month ago. I was good in the Tour du Limousin, and I was hoping that in the Tour of Britain I could get some results, but I fell sick after the first stage. You can hear my voice, and I\u2019m struggling now,\u201d he said after stage four. The Frenchman would ultimately not start the final stage.<\/p>\n

So, a lot of misery, and then the doubts about the future are not surprising. Lafay does not yet have a contract for next year, but first he wants to evaluate the situation. \u201cLast year it was really hard because at one moment, I was thinking I might not ride a bike again, even just for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know yet for 2026,\u201d the 29-year-old Frenchman continued. \u201c\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll race again next year. I\u2019ve not decided yet, but with these two years I\u2019ve had a lot of time to decide on what I\u2019d do after cycling, and I think that I\u2019m okay to stop now. I\u2019m happy to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"victofLafay takes a few weeks to make a decision: “Now is not the right time”<\/p>\n

Still, he doesn’t want to make a final decision yet. “I will take a few weeks, and I want to decide when I\u2019m in good shape, but now it\u2019s not good because I\u2019m sick. After a good race, I\u2019ll decide.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 29, I\u2019m not 19 like these young guys. Cycling has changed a lot in these years,\u201d Lafay explained his doubts. \u201cI did this all my life since I was five, and there\u2019s something else to do. We risk our lives cycling, and I have a lot of things to do out of cycling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such as? \u201cFirst, I want to travel but really enjoy it, not like how we travel now in countries and never see anything. Also, I want to do other sports. I have a lot of ideas for work that I\u2019d like to do after. Sell cheese in Japan, for example. Because I\u2019m a cheese lover. I have a lot of good ideas and I know that the future will be really good,,\u201d the Frenchman assured us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Lafay beat Wout van Aert, among others, in a thrilling finale in stage two of the 2023…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-125170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}